Hacker News Reader

Comment by gavinray | Hacker News Reader

Semi-related: Worked as a landscaper during my youth, one of my first jobs

I used to think that the line patterns mowed into grass were a purely aesthetic thing.

It turns out, the lines are mowed in a rotation to prevent wearing out the grass and causing damage. First you mow length-wise, then width-wise, then diagonally, finally diagonally in the opposite direction, before cycling through again.

Useless information for you today.

View on HN

Absolutely correct. If you always mow in the same direction, the grass always gets pushed in the same way by the lawnmowers blades and it will eventually morph to that direction and lose strength, which appears as grass that doesn't stand straight up, and it looks worse.

You worked for someone better than average, or I worked for someone worse than average, because this sounds like a thoughtful touch and they never told us anything like that.

Surprised no one here just does the outside border and spirals in (pinching off and immediately finishing irregular bulges). Looks neat, though more organic than rows, and is naturally motivating, as the second "half" always seems to go much quicker. Spiral the other way next time for evenness.

Tends to look strange, though spiraling around the edge twice before doing the usual lines will make your life easier, as you mentioned.

I don't usually do the diagonal paths but I do try to go at right angles to the previous mowing each time I mow the lawn (excepting when I can't remember which way I did it last time, but it's usually still visible) or a few narrow areas which really only make sense to mow in one direction.

How often did you mow the same grass to have to care about the direction of the previous mow?

I mow my garden between one to two weeks, according to the time of the year and sometimes I stop in June, if it stops raining like in 2022 and this year.

What if your yard is only crabgrass

Then you mow side to side

wat. Causing damage to the grass you're hitting with a (relatively) blunt object in the first place? All you did was waste three times the gas.

> hitting with a (relatively) blunt object in the first place

Well there's your problem right there.

Lawn mower blades are meant to be somewhat blunt. Like a butter knife. Too sharp and the blade will chip away on the harder materials.

I have a battery electric lawnmower. I found I got noticably better battery life after sharpening the blade to a near razor edge. Yes the edge is more fragile but it cuts the grass with much less resistance.

That I did not know. I still wouldn't stick a finger near one of course.

They still work when blunted which is most of the time. But ideally they are sharp and slicing pure grass, grass tolerates slicing better than ripping. It's like a sword, ideally it is razor sharp, doesn't chip when blunted, and still works as a decent club even when blunted because it will be the second it hits something hard.

For regular mowing sure. For reel mowing (e.g. golf) you will want to sharpen them.

They are meant to be sharp like an axe (high angle), not sharp like a knife (low angle). They aren’t supposed to be blunt like a butter knife. Dull blades damage the grass.

I believe the point is the wheel lines and to vary where the wheels go by changing the pattern each time you mow so you don't, for example, always drive exactly down the fence and cause a rut or mulch buildup or missed area.

I dont think it was "don't hurt the grass while you cut it" or "mow it four times in one sitting".

How often are you people mowing your lawn that that's even a concern? It's like this is "surburbs: the problem: the comment section"

"Worked as a landscaper during my youth"

We people vary frequency with weather. Lawn tractors are heavy and, due to moisture, ground isn't always hard. On large properties some of the ground stays moist longer due to drainage issues. So yes, after years of indifferent mowing, one can detect where wheels have been moving topsoil.

> Lawn tractor

I feel you're dealing with a different level of lawn mowing if you're towing a mower, not pushing one.

Common lawn tractors integrate a mower deck. They're heavy duty riding mowers, but the terms are ambiguous. Large, commercial units can tow mower decks, but most lawn tractors used by property owners don't do that: it's hard to maneuver, and typically only used on fields.

You can do things correctly, with thought and attention even if they seem unimportant, or you can be a feckless dipshit. This applies to most things in life.

The argument is that it doesn't make a difference at certain levels of mowing.

From that perspective, it's like someone going over their strategies to avoid overloading their car's suspension when they're buying groceries. That's not a "thought and attention" scenario, that's a "why do you have half a ton of groceries" scenario.

>All you did was waste three times the gas.

They don't mean do all those cuts each time you mow. You mow the grass in one direction one day, and then a few days later when it needs cut again, you mow a different pattern.

I do this very thing in the fall when all of my neighbor's trees drop their leaves which blow into my yard. I don't bag leaves. I mulch them. To get them down to a respectable looking yard, it can easily take this many passes. I do it all over again in the early spring towards the end of February when the Live Oak trees in my yard finally drop their leaves for the year. According to my watch, I can cover more than 2 miles just taking my mower for a walk on those days.

When I used to mow neighbor's yards as a kid, I'd do a crosshatch pattern that I'd rotate 45deg each week, orthagonal vs diagonal. Just doing one direction looks fine but a crosshatch looks even better, especially if they have thick, healthy grass. I wouldn't be as meticulous on the side and backyards, those would just get a single, slightly overlapping pass in whatever direction was convenient unless they had a really nice backyard, then I'd do extra there.

People like that golf course look and I'd get nice tips for doing it.

You are mowing your lawn every few days?

Depends on how much rain you are getting that can be expected.

>a few days later

Ohh, you're one of those neighbours. Once every two weeks is plenty.

Depends where you live, what season, and what equipment.

I live in the PNW where the grass grows crazy fast in the spring, and I use a reel mower since my yard is small. It needs to be done regularly, and I'm not even a "lawn guy".

East-coast of Canada, the grass grows fairly well throughout the spring and summer but I think mowing excessively is... well, excessive. But I live in a neighbourhood of predominantly seniors who wash their car and mow their lawn every fucking day, presumably because they have nothing better to do, so anytime I try to sit outside and enjoy the lovely summer days it's ruined by all the lawnmowers. Wouldn't be so bad if they used reel mowers, but of course they're all on oversized lawn tractors to mow relatively small lawns.

But then, I also like my lawn to look just a bit "shaggy" instead of clean-cut all the time, so it's possible I'm in a bit of a minority here.

The problem with a reel mower is that if you let the grass get too long the reel mower won't cut it, so you pretty much have to do it every few days when it's growing fast.

Which is fine anyway, because a reel mower isn't a nuisance to your neighbours.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com