"ceed" wrote in message
newsp.s7ni8mrcqo6mj3@debob...
Hi,

I have moved to the warn Austin climate relatively recently so I do not
have a lot of experience keeping a lawn here. My lawn has "normal grass".
It looks like what most people around here have (sorry for not knowing
more about this), not carpet grass or anything. I have been asking around
a little as to how short to cut my grass and gotten all kinds of answers.
So now I ask he How short should I mow? My lawn gets several hours of
sun every day and I use a mulcing mower.

Advice greatly appreciated.

Ceed,

I generally trim mine when I can't find my car. G

For the health of the lawn, the general rule is "the longer the better" -
the roots are better shaded and the soil loses less moisture. Your
tradeoffs are appearance and how often you must mow to maintain that
appearance. It's your lawn; choose the path that best suits your time and
efforts.

That said, lawns are water hogs in our climate. They're put in because
they're relatively inexpensive and they quickly give a yard a "finished"
look. To my way of thinking they're a symbol of thoughtless suburban
conformity on par with the picket fence, SUV, big box store and after school
soccer for the tots (shudder). Unless you have compelling reasons such as
children, neighborhood CC&Rs or you genuinely like the look and are willing
to put in the money and effort to maintain it, you may want to consider
reducing the area of your lawn or eliminating it altogether.

I have green stuff in the front yard that I mow periodically when the rains
cause it to get long; I wouldn't go so far as to call it a lawn. I need to
level my house and do some other major repair work which would cause
considerable damage to any plants that I might put in so I haven't made any
effort beyond this. In the future I fully intend to be lawn free with a low
maintenance xeriscape.

--
Mike Harris
Austin, TX