What a season looks like

Most of the work is one mow a week while the grass is growing, 30 to 60 minutes for a typical suburban yard, plus trimming the edges. Around that sit a few jobs done once or twice a year: a soil test, two to four feedings, and a sharpened blade. Watering fills the gap when rain falls short of about an inch a week. The calendar depends on your grass. Cool-season lawns (the northern half of the US) grow hardest in spring and fall. Warm-season lawns (the South) grow in summer and go tan in winter.

Your first month, in order

What you can grow in your first month

A soil report

A results sheet with your soil acidity and nutrient levels, which decides every bag you buy this year.

A lawn held at the right height

Four weekly cuts at 3 inches or more shade out a good share of new weeds.

A watering number

The minutes your sprinkler needs to put down half an inch, measured once with a rain gauge.

Light stripes

Mowing in straight, alternating passes bends the grass enough to show pale and dark bands.

Mowing height by grass type

Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and fine fescue

2.5 to 3.5 inches. These are the common northern lawn grasses.

Tall fescue

3 to 4 inches. Common across the middle of the country, and the most heat-tolerant of the cool-season grasses.

Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass

1 to 2 inches. Both spread sideways and look best kept short.

St. Augustinegrass

3 to 4 inches. Coarse, wide blades, grown along the Gulf Coast and in Florida.

The one-third rule

Never remove more than a third of the height in one cut. For a 3 inch lawn, mow when it reaches 4.5 inches.

Summer heat

Use the top of the range. Taller grass roots deeper and shades the soil.

A long lawn mown in alternating light and dark stripes, running between tall clipped hedges — Stripes from alternating passes

Choosing a mower and keeping the blade sharp

Deck width

14 to 16 inches handles a small city lot, and 20 or 21 inches suits a yard up to a quarter acre. Wider decks save passes but are heavier to turn and store.

Height range

Check that the top setting reaches at least 3.5 inches and that one lever adjusts all four wheels. Some budget mowers top out too low for cool-season grass.

Mulching

Look for a mulch plug or mulching blade so clippings are chopped fine and dropped. Returned clippings supply roughly a quarter of the nitrogen a lawn uses in a year.

Battery runtime

Compare the listed runtime to your mowing time. Most kits claim 30 to 60 minutes, and thick or damp grass cuts that sharply.

Sharpening

Sharpen after about 25 hours of mowing, or at least once a season. Follow the original bevel, take the same amount off each end, and hang the blade on the balancer. A blade that tips to one side shakes the mower.

Before every mow

Check the height setting and look at the grass tips from the last cut. Frayed tips mean the blade is due.

Backyard putting greensA small patch mown as low as a reel mower allows, with a cup set into it. A course-quality natural green needs a sand base, drainage and a specialized greens mower, and the USGA suggests hiring professionals for one. A low-mown practice patch on your existing grass is the realistic home version. It rolls slowly, but it holds a line.

Start here

Pick a sunny, level patch about 10 feet square and lower the cut there by one notch each week until the mower bottoms out. Dropping the height all at once scalps the grass brown.

USGA guide to backyard greens

Clover lawnsWhite clover seeded into the grass, or grown in place of it. Clover pulls its own nitrogen from the air, stays green in dry spells and feeds bees. It handles less foot traffic than grass, stains clothes, and dies if a broadleaf weed killer touches it.

Start here

In early spring or late summer, mow one section short, rake hard enough to see soil between the plants, and scatter clover seed at the rate on the bag. Keep it damp for the first two weeks.

UMN Extension bee lawn guide

Open a card for the first thing to do. The button on each card adds that direction's gear to the kit.

Free guides for both directions

What trips beginners up

Cutting too short

Scalping feels like it buys time between mows. It thins the grass and lets crabgrass in.

Watering a little every day

Light daily watering keeps roots in the top inch. Two deep soakings a week push them down.

Overfeeding

More than about 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet at once burns the grass. Cool-season lawns want most of their feeding in fall, warm-season lawns in late spring and summer.

Guessing at soil

Lime, sulfur and phosphorus only help if the report says they are short.

Expecting a fix in weeks

Color improves in a month. Filling in bare or weedy areas takes a full growing season.

Mowing wet grass

It clumps, clogs the deck and cuts unevenly. Wait until the dew is off.

Mower and chemical safety

Clear the yard first

A mower blade tip moves at close to 200 mph and throws stones, sticks and toys. Keep children and pets indoors or well away while you mow, and never carry a passenger.

Dress for it

Sturdy closed-toe shoes, long pants, safety glasses and hearing protection. Gas mowers and trimmers run at 85 to 100 decibels, loud enough to damage hearing over a season of weekly use.

Hands and feet away from the deck

Release the blade control and wait for the blade to stop before clearing a clog, and use a stick, never your hand. Do not tape or tie down the safety bar.

Slopes

Mow across a slope with a walk-behind mower so a slip takes your feet away from the deck, and stay off slopes when the grass is wet. Look behind you before pulling the mower backward.

Blade work

Before tipping the mower or touching the blade, remove the battery and safety key, or pull the spark plug wire on a gas mower. Tip a gas mower with the air filter facing up, wear leather gloves, and tighten the blade bolt to the torque in the manual.

Fuel

Refill a gas mower outdoors with the engine off and cool.

Fertilizer and weed killer

Read the whole label before opening the bag and follow it exactly. On a weed killer or other pesticide the label is federal law. It states the rate, the protective gear to wear, and how long children and pets must stay off the treated lawn (often until a spray has dried, or until granules have been watered in and the grass is dry again).

Runoff and storage

Do not apply before heavy rain or onto frozen ground, and store leftovers sealed in the original bag out of reach of children. Some states and towns restrict phosphorus or set dates when lawn fertilizer cannot go down, so check local rules.

A man in a hat and long pants, seen from behind, running a string trimmer along the edge of a sidewalk — Trimming a sidewalk edge in long pants

Free help reading a product label

National Pesticide Information Center Free help reading a lawn product label, by web or phone

Where to learn more

State Extension services

Every land-grant university publishes free lawn calendars for its own climate, and many run low-cost soil testing labs.

University turf programs

The Minnesota and Purdue sites are written for homeowners and cover most northern lawn questions.

Forums

Post a close photo of a grass blade or weed and someone will usually identify it within a day.

Free places to learn lawn care

Why the kit looks this way

The mower is most of the cost, so a working one in the garage cuts the starting bill by more than half. The soil test comes before fertilizer because it tells you what kind to buy and how much. A spreader matters more than it looks: fertilizer thrown by hand lands in stripes of burnt and hungry grass. Eye and ear protection sit in the essential tier because you need them on the first mow. The trimmer, sprinkler, rain gauge and sharpener are recommended because a lawn survives a few weeks without them.

Sprinklers throwing fans of water across a sunlit lawn — Sprinklers running on a lawn

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the kit list. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out, which is how you drop the mower if you already own one. The putting green and clover gear and the weed puller stay out of the total until you switch them on.

Battery walk-behind lawn mower

Essential · Core equipment

The weekly cut is the hobby. A battery mower starts with a button, runs quieter than gas, and has no fuel or oil to store.

budget

Worx Cordless Lawn Mower, 40V 14" 2-in-1 Grass Mower for 1/8 Acre, WG779

4.0(3.6K)

$251.42

Lawn Care

What a season looks like

Your first month, in order

Mowing height by grass type

Choosing a mower and keeping the blade sharp

Two directions to take it

What trips beginners up

Mower and chemical safety

Where to learn more

Why the kit looks this way

Line up the mowing kit

Battery walk-behind lawn mower

Soil test kit

Broadcast spreader

Slow-release lawn fertilizer

Safety glasses

Hearing protection earmuffs

Leather work gloves

Cordless string trimmer

Mower blade sharpener and balancer

Oscillating sprinkler

Rain gauge

Manual reel mower

Putting green cup and flag

White clover lawn seed

Stand-up weed puller