I have been asked many times—more times than I can count—why I bring my lawns down to such a short height preceding the Winter months. There are are many reasons I do this; I will outline the most important reasons here…

The Pavement Effect
Blowing leaves through 6″ Bermuda or Zoysiagrass is painstakingly slow. At that height, the turf has formed somewhat of an inverted canopy that essentially just traps leaves within the tillers; and once the turf has gone dormant, it becomes more like a well-worn straw broom. You know those dust bunnies you sweep from your floor, but you can never seem to shake from the end of your broom? It’s the same principle. By bringing the turf down to a shorter height—slowly, while transitioning into Autumn—it greatly enhances my ability to work more efficiently, and to keep the lawn looking cleaner. This is especially true while blowing wet leaves. A higher cut would make in near impossible to keep the lawn managed with a flat, compact appearance, because I would first have to blow them out of the turf, and then across the turf. Blowing leaves—wet or dry—across a shorter, more compact turf is a lot like blowing them across pavement.

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