If You Do One Thing For Your Lawn In June, It Needs To Be This

June is an exciting month in the yard. Your garden may finally be in full bloom, and your lawn should be flourishing. Now it's just a matter of keeping your grass happy and healthy as the temperatures heat up. One of the easiest and most essential ways to do that is by making sure your mower blade is at the right height. In most cases, the best length to cut grass to is around 3½ inches. 

While the look of extremely short grass is sometimes seen as appealing, lawns shorter than 3 inches are prone to struggling, especially during the warm and dry summer months. This is because shorter grass has less drought tolerance and grub resistance than taller grass. A properly mowed lawn requires far less water and pesticide to stay healthy. Consider leaving your grass clippings on the lawn instead of bagging them, as well. This will provide some natural fertilizer for your lawn.

Grass that's closer to 3 or 4 inches is also better able to shade out pesky weeds like crabgrass. Since you should only mow about ⅓ of your grass's height at a time, growing your grass out to about 4 inches and then mowing it back to about 3⅓ inches should work perfectly for keeping your lawn healthy and lush all season long.

Setting the height on your lawn mower's deck is relatively easy in most cases. Begin by putting on gloves and making sure your mower is off and that the engine is cool. Depending on the style of mower you have, adjusting the mower deck could be as simple as turning a dial or moving a lever next to the mower's wheels. Start with the deck set as high as possible and then move it down slowly, lowering both the front and back sides. If you aren't sure how to adjust your mower deck, check the instruction manual for your specific mower. While you are checking the height of the mower deck, this could also be a good time to confirm that your mower's blade is still sharp. Dull lawn mower blades can damage grass and waste fuel.

There's no need to drop your mower's height lower once the summer season is over and temperatures begin to cool again, either. Unless you have serious vole issues during colder months, you can safely keep your mower blades at the same height. If you do opt to lower the blade height in the fall, don't go shorter than ½ inch lower than your summer height.