I’ve always heard you’re susposed to mow the lawn in one direction one week, then in the opposite direction the following time. ie) N-S week one, E-W week two.
OK, what difference does it make??? Isn’t the blade going in a circular motion no matter what direction your pushing the mower???
And while I’m at it, how do they get the fancy patterns on baseball/football fields, which is probably related to the first question here.
Some would say to mow in different directions in order to keep from rutting the lawn with the tires of the mower.
I do it just to break up the monotony.
It’s best to keep a very sharp blade, too!
This used to be a big factor when non-powered “push” mowers were the main source of lawn mowing. When the first power mowers came into being they were, for the most part merely powered versions of their predessors. Then came the circular cutting action of the majority of modern mowers. No matter what angle you hit the lawn it will be going the same direction.
The problem is that the lawn will lie down in the direction in which it is cut, and it will not look as good as it would if you could vary your cutting action.
To illustrate the “lying-down” effect look at many football fields which are cut north to south for one ten-yard section and south to north for the next.
Note this link is from Maxim, so don’t be offended if you see a couple of pictures of girls in bikinis.
I mow in one direction then turn around and mow the other way. That’s the way they do it on ball fields. My dad does it back and forth then does it again perpicindicular to his first cuts. His doesn’t look as good because you can see traces of the first mow pattern under the second one.
If you want to know how to make your lawn look really good, it’s all about good fertilizers and thatching. Thatching is when longer blades of grass lay down and can’t be cut by the blade. What you need for that is the thatcher; it makes the long blades stand straight up so they can be cut. This exposes the part of the ground that has no grass.
Use sun seed for where the sun hits and shade seed for the shady parts. Soon your lawn will look like the fairway. I’ve tried to make it look like the green but that’s close to impossible without regrading and reseeding the lawn with a special variety of seed.
You’d forget which way you were going, before you were finished 