Mower height for grass/clover lawns.

[Snagglefoot]

I helped my neighbour grow grass on a large patch of black dirt that the grass would not grow on. I called it his UFO landing pad. He’s a seasonal resident so it rarely gets water. I ran a hose over to his patch of dirt and seeded a grass clover mixture.
It turned out nice but then he came out and ran his POS riding mower over it with three bent blades set at a nominal 2-1/2 inches. It tore up all the clover and left huge bunches of torn up grass and clover on the lawn.

I educated him and now he cuts the clover area with push mower with the height set at 3-3/4 inch. It’s high enough not to disturb the white clover but cuts the grass to give it a clean level look. Here is a close up after a cut at that height. Enjoy.

 

[RedSpider]

I've had several areas in my lawns over the years where grass just refused to grow, and in every instance it ends up being a huge rock a few inches below the surface. The last one was about three inches down, and the rock itself was about 2-3 inches thick and as big as a garbage can lid. No fun digging that out.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I have a spot that has a hard time growing due to shade, not due to lack of water. However the lawn has to be mowed at the lowest setting so it dries up quicker when we get rain.

 

[GaryMX5]

Funny, but in most suburban areas (blue grass manicured lawns, etc). clover is considered a weed. But I'd be one of the first to admit it can become a beautiful ground cover in wide open expanses and acreage.

 

[walterjay]

Clover is great for livestock but not good on my lawn. Last fall I treated clover growth near my house and re-seeded with grass. It is now lush and beautiful. And I always mow at 3-3/4"

 

[Rand]

My yard has random giant concrete pieces and blocks about 3-12" below surface. I'd love to see some Ground penetrating radar image(or whatever) of what the heck is in my yard.

Have a couple edges sticking up to surface but based on a shovel wiggle they are at least 12" if not bigger.

I almost need to buy a tractor with a loader and backhoe for other purposes. so if I do might have to test it out on the yard

 

[HyundaiAbuser]

I have a lot of clover in my yard. Since we are not in an HOA or a particularly high cost part of town I like to mow with the push mower set to the highest setting and my yard stays green when neighbors dry out. The local wildlife love the green and my cats love seeing the local wildlife.

Grass is overrated, waste of water to irrigate.

 

[Not Sure]

Cutting hight really depends upon how level and smooth the yard is as well as how often you are willing to mow.

My yard is like the surface of the moon and as such even the highest setting on my mower is not high enough to prevent scalping in places and other areas being a foot high. Since I mow at this hight I also don’t have to mow very often, even in the wet spring when the grass grows like crazy one every couple weeks is fine.

If your yard is perfectly graded you can get away with cutting extremely low, often well below an inch. However this will require daily mowing to maintain a healthy and green lawn that short. As for the clover, weeds, and everything else it has the ability to adjust its growing hight to remain below the hight you mow at (up to a point). Let be honest anyone trying to mow below 3/4 inch has already eliminated every single weed including the clover and spends almost every waking minute working on or worrying about their lawn.

Unless you are mowing below an inch with a greens reel mower, your not going to kill or even hurt the clover by mowing too low. It will adapt to whatever height you mow at and can survive cutting hight aa low as 3/4 of an inch (maybe lower) certainly lower then any rotory mower is able to mow be it a push mower or rider.

My advice is to mow as low as possible without scalping and mow it as often as needed to maintain that hight without the grass growing brown bases. The clover will grow below that height and will not get mowed much if at all after it gets used to that height of cut after a half dozen or so mowings.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Are you saying the height of the clover will be less if the leaves get it off numerous times?

 

[Snagglefoot]

To be clear, this lawn was seeded with mixture of white clover and grass. Once in a while the white flower heads appear but the green cover it provides is great. A two inch high high blade would completely obliterate the clover leaves.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Funny, but in most suburban areas (blue grass manicured lawns, etc). clover is considered a weed. But I'd be one of the first to admit it can become a beautiful ground cover in wide open expanses and acreage.

There are some clover related plants that are definitely weeds, like Black Medic that has clover-like leaves but has vines and yellow flowers. It is total all over our community ball field but apparently can fix nitrogen. I selectively spay it if it’s in my yard but we don’t spray the ball field.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Are you saying the height of the clover will be less if the leaves get it off numerous times?

I mean if the clover leaves get clipped off numerous times.

 

[Hohn]

I have a spot that has a hard time growing due to shade, not due to lack of water. However the lawn has to be mowed at the lowest setting so it dries up quicker when we get rain.

Taller grass has more and deeper roots, might be counterproductive to cut short if water mitigation is the goal.

 

[Silverado12]

I set my rider and Lawn-Boy push mower at the highest setting, which I believe is somewhere between 3.5 and 4". My Toro will go a little higher but it gets set on about the same height as the rest.

 

[Not Sure]

Are you saying the height of the clover will be less if the leaves get it off numerous times?

Yes I am. I have tried numerous times to get rid of clover and other weeds by letting it grow tall and then mowing it very low. It doesn’t work. The clover and other weeds will simply grow back at a much lower hight. Once you mow it a few times at a certain hight clover “learns” not to grow as high and will grow very short less than an inch off the ground, with only the flowers growing higher. You can mow those off and they will grow right back in a day or two. Plants are actually pretty intelligent in my opinion, they seem to learn much faster than many animals that people say are smart!

 

[Ronsant]

I love me some clover lawn.

 

[JTK]

With my closely cropped weed style lawn, it's more about the terrain than the "grass" itself. For my current Toro Super Recycler, the wheel adjusters are set one click from the highest setting. I don't know what that amounts to inches wise. No matter the push mower, that seems to be the norm for me. One click from the highest or the highest setting.

On my riding mower (42" deck) and sub compact tractor with a 54" belly mower, I keep them up high so the gauge wheels only touch ground on uneven ground.