We laid new lawn just under a month ago. Some of the seed germinated faster than the rest of it so we laid additional seed a couple weeks ago. It's really shot up as we've had lots of rain – reckon we can take this barrier down, mow it and allow foot traffic? We have a toddler and dog and cat so don't want to risk screwing it if it's not ready. Photos for reference. New to this! Any advice would be appreciated.
by GimmeTheLoot60
9 Comments
Can you cut it? Yes, absolutely. You should have been cutting it well before it hit 7 inches.
Would I allow foot traffic? Probably not yet.
I agree with the other commenter, you should have been cutting this thing something like 2 weeks post germination. And unless you want to kill the baby turflings I’d limit foot traffic, a toddler might be fine, but a couple pups getting the zoomies will definitely tear stuff up.
Something you need to consider before you mow is the 1/3 rule of turf mowing. You should never take more than 1/3 of the leaf blade off at a time. Gotta think of the leaf blade as a regrowing solar panel, you cut off some of the solar panel and there’s still enough left to pull energy from the Sun and regrow the rest of the panel that was cut off. But if you cut off too much solar panel it can’t produce enough energy to regrow. So in other words, if you take the height of cut down too fast you’ll risk seriously injuring the plant.
Should have been cut many times already, but I’d keep people off.
Yes cut it — set the mower height to the max.
Yes. You should have been mowing several inches ago.
*First off. Congrats on the nice grass, that’s a beauty.
*yes, cut on mowers highest setting.
*no, do not allow kid and dogs on it yet, need to get those roots to thicken up and grow deeper.
Depends on size of dog.
Cut, no foot traffic, maybe do another round of seeding for patchy spots or thin areas if you notice them.
I would have cut this 10-11 days after germination when it reached 3 inches, not a month.