Lawn mowing is not enjoyed by many, but garden expert Bo Petterson warns that common mistakes could be wasting their efforts.
Studies show that Britons spend a staggering 15 hours every year mowing their lawns, which is about one hour every two weeks. But all this hard work might not be helping, says gardening guru Bo Petterson.
Bo shared his top four tips for getting a “dad quality lawn” on TikTok with his 3.5 million followers, where he’s known as @dadadvicefrombo. He started his video by saying how important it is to take care of your lawn.
Bo said: “In the spring, you need to mow a couple of times a week and you need to cut it short. That teaches your grass that it can’t grow tall so it has to spread out, giving you a thicker lawn.”
“In the summer, you don’t have to cut it as often but you want to leave it longer because it provides shade for the roots from the hot sun.” His next tip is to change the direction you mow each time you cut the grass.
“You can go up and down, side to side, in a cross pattern, even wavy, it doesn’t matter.
“If you don’t do that your lawn will learn to grow sideways like a combover,” he explained, reported The Mirror.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) agrees with this advice, saying that it stops ruts from forming in the lawn.
The gardener explained that if your grass has ripped ends, it means your lawn mower blades are not sharp enough. “You need to sharpen them or change your blades,” he advised.
It’s a good idea to sharpen or get new blades about once every year. Bo also said: “Check your grass every few months for ripped cuts, that will tell you it’s time.”
The expert also told people to use the bits of grass they cut as mulch, saying: “The trick is you have to mow often and it helps if you really love your mower.”
People who saw this advice were very happy and talked about it in the comments. One person wrote: “I didn’t know about changing the pattern!” Someone else joked: “Realising I’ve never mowed a yard correctly in my life.”
Another person shared: “I wish I saw this years ago! I’ve always struggled with my lawn, I’m going to use all these tips.”
Someone else said: “I didn’t know that about cutting short in spring. Love learning new grass tips.”
