Lawn too high! How to cut an overgrown lawn.

When you inherit a lawn after it has been left unattended for some time, it is often necessary to deal with an overgrown mess. You’ll need a bit more patience than someone cutting a well maintained lawn. Getting it into perfect shape is a little more difficult.

Commercial lawn companies have equipment that will cut such a lawn, but it cab be very expensive to hire them. And in the summer months they can be so busy that you will have to waste a long time before they can deal with the problem. Lawn gardening is a big topic, but I hope these basic steps will give you a reasonable lawn without getting too complicated.

The first step is the hardest.

Depending on your equipment, the two methods I tend to suggest is a strimmer or scythe. Now, many people are afraid of scythes but my experience is an Austrian scythe will cut through grass that is up to a meter tall without any trouble.

Many people will not have one that is accessible. Depending on the size of your garden you can either use a sickle, which is available from most garden centers, or a strimmer. Of the two, I think a strimmer is the best choice.

In general when cutting lawn you will want a strimmer with a plastic wire attachment rather than a steel blade. I find that with strimmers they tend to tear the grass a lot, and it can get caught up. I recommend taking off a small section at a time and removing the waste.

This is the hardest step. Whatever tools you use it is a workout.

Once you have removed the top layer, you will need to access the lawn. If the lawn has been left unattended for more than a year, the grass may have bent over, in which case you will have to keep on going over it with the strimmer until you have a lawn that can be cut via a mower.

After you have removed the first layer, I generally recommend watering the lawn thoroughly and leaving it for a week or so as it is to recover.

Once you have left the lawn to recover for a week, it is time for the second trim. I suggest at this stage you will have a lawn that is short enough to use a conventional lawn mower on. However, before starting you need to set the lawn mower to the highest setting.

Cut with the lawn mower, trying to make sure everything is even.

The reality is, after you are finished it is almost certain the lawn will look dreadful. Don’t worry about that. Things will improve over the next few weeks.

Best Lawn Mower

In general if you are mowing a really tough patch of lawn, or a large on, you will want a gas mower. But if you have a small yard and electric mower is best. I often use a electric mower in my own garden, in the tricky areas near the house, and it work very well.

Flower border edges

It is often best to strim or lawn mow up to the flower border, and then use a trimmer to make the edge of the flower border nice and neat.

The next step is to scarify the lawn. This requires a lot of effort. Get a scarifying rake, and rake the lawn roughly one metre at a time. Get all the moss and weeds off the lawn. Once you have done this, have a cold drink and try not to look at the mess. It won’t be pretty.

Alternatively, you can hire a machine that will do the job for you if you have a really large garden.

If you have any area in the lawn that is particularly wet, prod it over with a fork, and then brush sand into the lawn to fill any holes. This process can be speeded up with machines you can rent. But they work in the same way. All you are doing is adding drainage holes into the lawn.

If it is in the spring, buy a pack of lawn fertilizer, and follow the directions on the packet. The fertilizer shouldn’t normally be applied in autumn, since you don’t want to encourage green growth just before the frosts.

If you have any really bare patches, you can buy a bag of lawn seed, and again follow the directions on the packet. It can be a good idea to cover the areas with prickly branches too, to stop birds eating the seedlings.

After you have done all this, the lawn may look pretty bad for a while. But by taking this action, the lawn will start to grow, and you will be amazed how rapidly it becomes a well maintained lawn. After that, all you have to do is mow the lawn regularly to make a serviceable lawn.

You can read more of my thoughts on gardening in hardy perennial