How low can I cut?

Lawn is a bog standard mix of grasses that I have been trying to improve over the last two years with overseeding, top dressing, fertiliser etc. but it is by no means an ornamental lawn capable of being cut really short (sadly!).

My cutting regime has evolved to: diagonal with the rotary mower set on 3, then up and down for stripes with the cylinder set on 3.

The reason for using the rotary is that the cylinder flattens a lot of the blades and misses stalks. I have found that by going over it first with the rotary it helps that problem a bit.

The result is a more even cut than just using the cylinder but it still leaves a lot of flattened blades that then stand up after a while. This means my stripes last for about a day before looking ragged.

See pictures of immediately after cutting today.

I wonder if i can cut shorter, and if that will help? The lawn is in pretty good health after all my hard work (still plenty more to do of course!) so I wonder if it could take a shorter cut.

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The main issue for me with cutting low is how even the soil is. If the underlying soil surface is lumpy, I need to cut higher otherwise I scalp the grass on the higher bits.

I've had to redo the lawn in every garden I've had, which has tended to make this worse because dug-over soil will naturally subside to varying degrees. Top-dressing every year with topsoil will fix this gradually over 2-3 years (you don't want to put on too much at once and bury the grass). If your lawn surface is pretty smooth, then this is one problem you don't have, which is a bonus.

If you're getting a lot of flattened blades though, I'd be wondering about the setup on your cylinder mower. The cutting blades may not be sharp enough, or the lower blade may have drifted apart slightly so that you no longer get the "scissor" action which is how a cylinder mower is supposed to cut.

The main thing is just to cut higher than the stalks of the "good" grass. So long as you're still cutting the blades of that grass, you're basically fine.

 

Hi Graham, thanks for your reply. lawn is a bit bumpy (tree roots) but I have smoothed out some of the larger dips and bumps and slowly working on the rest (first top-dressing last autumn).

The mower has flattened the grass since day one out of the box. I appreciate that cylinder mowers don't deal with "long" grass, in fact all of the reviews of mine (Allett Classic) suggest that it almost can't be used on anything but an ornamental lawn.

When I have finished going over with the rotary mower the grass is approx 1 1/2" - 2" fairly evenly. When I then go over with the cylinder it takes the top off a lot of that so brings it down to approx 1 1\2" but with lots of flattened blades that eventually stand back up again to nearly 2".

I think the problem is compounded by the lawn rarely getting very dry. It is shaded and doesn't get much wind either. Even on these crazy hot days the morning dew has been soaking it and without direct sun takes hours to dry out.

I think I can probably drop down to 1" from everything that I have read although I don't know if that will make much difference as I will still have flattened blades standing back up after cutting.

 

That's not a cheap mower. Have you checked that the cylinder blades meet the bottom blade properly? If you put a piece of paper on the bottom blade and turn the cylinder by hand, it should slice the paper like scissors. If it doesn't, you need to tweak it. Many don't come set up properly out of the box, for sure.

 

Hi Graham, thanks, I will check that out.

 

Here's the paper test Graham mentions

 

Interesting. That was not what I did! I got a sheet of A4 and fed it in between the blades and cutting bar. Rotating the blades just pulled the paper in and around untouched. Thinking that was bad I lowered the cylinder a couple of notches but that meant that it was fouling slightly on the cutting bar so I raised it up one and fed the paper in as before. This time it made slices in the paper.

I assumed therefore that the tiny adjustment I had made might be what was needed, but having since cut the grass it makes no difference, I have a lot of flattened grass blades.

I have previously tried taking the front roller off and replaced it with a "wheel kit'" (a fancy description from Allett for two plastic wheels and two bolts, for 50 quid) but still the same. (Which is puzzling as obviously the front roller is laying the grass flat, but that isn't the problem it seems).

Bottom line I think is that this mower is not designed for an average lawn, especially one that doesn't really dry out. Lots of reviews point out that it really is only for ornamental lawns.