How to Cut St. Augustine Grass

I'm Bill Elzey with Show Place Lawns. How to cut St. Augustine grass. St. Augustine grass is something that we have from Florida through Texas so it's a grass that grows in a pretty good sized region of our country. And it's probably one thing that doesn't get treated the proper way. Too many times I see St. Augustine grass cut way too short. Believe me when I tell you that the cutting height does not determine or effect how fast the grass will grow. At the same time St. Augustine should be cut in a once a week schedule to keep it growing to keep it healthy. The mowing height for St. Augustine is very important. You want to cut it taller to shade it's roots in the summer from the sun to keep it from drying out. And leave it that height in the winter to act as a blanket for the roots to protect it from cold weather. Technically the book that we all quote tells you to cut St. Augustine in a two and a half inch to three inch range. I like to expand that, and we have had success by doing so. We will take that mowing height to three and a half inches. It just seems to work better at three and a half. You might get by in shaded areas at three and a quarter inches. A way to determine that, the commercial mores are set. We can set them at a certain inch and we know we are getting that height. But for most lawn mowers that you will be using, they won't be set that way. To get your height take a mores, set it on a level surface, measure the distance from the bottom of the deck to the surface that the mores is sitting on. Then make your adjustments with your wheels then go from the bottom of the deck to the blade. Add those two measurements together. Now when doing so be sure that you unplug that spark plug. That would be the safe way of doing it. Again mowing it is probably the most important of anything you do. And in this case we are talking about cutting the St. Augustine grass. Another part of that is the direction in which you mow it. A lot of people do a square or a circle constantly. Over time you will be able to see that imprint in the grass. A good way of mowing would be to change your direction each time you mow. Go across, go up and down, go at an angle, go at another angle. That gives you four ways. That is going to keep that grass standing straight and you will not have a pattern in your grass. So change your directions, keep your mower height taller, cut it once a week and also be sure that that mower blade is sharp. Three times, sharpen the blade. Even if you are not hitting anything that blade is still going to go dull. Those are some ways, the best ways to cut St. Augustine grass.