Pam - gardengal wrote:
You want to continue mowing through winter (as weather permits)
anytime the
lawn grows more than a third higher than your normal mowing height.
Letting
the lawn grow long during the fall and winter months will allow the
grass
blades to bend over on themselves, which can promote fungal problems
and
patches of dieout. In colder climates, cool season grasses put on a
burst of
new growth in the fall - specially if you do fall fertilizing - and
will
continue to grow, albeit slowly, throughout the winter months and the
last
mowing is generally targeted towards the end of October/beginning of
November. In my climate, it is not unusual to need to mow the lawn
once or
twice in December and January, so don't put away that mower yet!


One more thing to consider, winter and early spring are often very
rainy. Mowing in the rain isn't a good idea for many reasons, but if it
doesn't stop raining anytime you're able to mow for any period of time,
the lawn is going to get away from you. You may not be able to mow it
back to ideal height without cutting off more than 1/3 the blade, and
you may not be able to space two mowings to bring it back, either. This
would even be more of a problem if you left the lawn close to it's
maximum desirable height to begin with.

During the summer, longer grass helps shade the roots, lowering watering
needs, and lessening the ability of annual weed seeds to germinate.
Those aren't objectives in the winter. But as Pam noted, fungal problems
are. Of course this doesn't mean you should scalp the lawn for the
winter, but you'll want to keep it trimmer. And anytime the weather
allows, mow.

--
Warren H.

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