Eric Piehl comments on mowing your 🌾︎ grass lawn

OK, so this article is how to mow my 🌾︎ grass lawn, but has many ideas applicable to you and your lawn.  Specifically, this article reminds me of important details, particularly at the beginning or end of the season, or whenever tired, hungry and grumpy!

Prepare, mow, finish up.
Other considerations.   [Eric:  When you change this document, please 📄︎ print relevant parts, and post on mower!]

Prepare

Prepare to mow whenever your lawn is:

• growing,
• ragged, or
• 50% longer than your mowing height in the table below (12-15 cm) (4½-6 in).

Maybe every 10 days, depending on the season and weather:

If allergies ever interfere with an awesome night's sleep.

I mow my 🌾︎ lawn with a Honda lawnmower, model=HRR2169VKA EJ, serial=MZCG-9229225, manual (.pdf).   I love this mower!  Light, fast, reliable, and it mulches very well!

• ☑ Verify oil level (.pdf page 6):
  ◦ clean dipstick with rag,
  ◦ pull out,
  ◦ oil should be in hatched area.  As needed, add oil SAE 10W-30 API service SJ.
• Knock all grass fragments out of the air filter (.pdf page 12).   When it comes time to replace, do so with Honda lawnmower air filter 17211-Z8B-901.
• Do all the other ☑ pre-mow checks (.pdf page 4).
  
  
• Keep your lawn neat by cutting it even.  Not short—that just makes your lawn grow uneven faster.  Make life easy on yourself by following recommendations of your local watershed council, and me …

  If you are cutting or mulching:	with grass length:		then set each wheel height to:	with open slots:
  🌾︎ grass tall and wet	≤15 cm  6"		10 cm 4"	0 in front 5 behind
  🌾︎ grass in normal condition
  	≤13½cm 5¼"		9 cm 3½"	1 in front 4 behind
  🍃︎ leaves after nights are cool	≤12 cm  4½"		8 cm 3"	2 in front 3 behind

• ☑ Verify internal door is securely latched in position=MULCH.
• ☑ Verify gasoline level, adding if needed.
  
  
• Don PPE:
  ◦ 👟︎ Closed-toe shoes with socks (crew-length, not shorties).
  ◦ 👓︎ Safety glasses.
  ◦ Hearing protection (not necessary with this quiet Honda).
  ◦ Optional gloves.
  ◦ Optional sunhat.
  ◦ If allergies from mowing may interfere with an awesome night's sleep tonight:
      (A) take your 💊︎ long-acting second-generation antihistamine you didn't bother with last night,
      (B) with a 🚰︎💧︎ tall glass of cold water, and
      (C) don a 😷 N99 or P100 HEPA respirator/​filter.
  In my town, Lowe's and Menards have a better selection of PPE and lighting v. Home Depot.
  
  
• If you are going to blow off the roof, clean the skylights, or blow off the deck, do it now—mowing will do most of the cleanup.
• If you are going to edge or weed using mechanical methods, do it now—the perimeter mow will do most of the cleanup.
  ◦ Among my weeds is hairy bittercress  Cardamine hirsuta.
  
  
• Open gasoline valve, on left side of engine.
• Hold dead-man switch to handle.
• Pull to start.
• Mow …

Mow

• Mow, controlling self-drive using thumb-levers.
• In pattern:

  If:		then mow with pattern:
  🌾︎ grass is tall or 🍃︎ lots of leaves or short on time		Spiral. With discharge chute to the spiral's inside (deposits cut grass preferentially on side that gets recut on the next pass).
  🌾︎ grass is ordinary and 🍃︎ leaves are ordinary and you have enough time		Diagonal or orthogonal strips. For each mow, rotate between directions NE, NW, NS then EW. For a given mow/direction, at the end of each strip: ◦ If you have a good runout (such as onto the street or driveway), runout, and turn mower by moving handle to done-ward. ◦ If no good runout (such as into your other plantings), snug up to the plantings until one wheel can go no further, and also turn mower by moving handle to done-ward.   Unless your done-ward wheel was the wheel that caused you to stop, in which case turn mower by moving handle to anti-done-ward. ◦ Finish with a clean clockwise run around the perimeter.

• Finish up …

Finish up

• Close gasoline valve, on left side of engine.
• Blow clean with leaf-blower:  top, sides and underneath (blow in through cuttings-discharge chute).
• Put away mower.  If necessary, stow handle out of way.
  
  
• If you have rain barrels, verify that they are still draining, not full of algae, etc., in accordance with rain barrel installation, use and management.
• If the weeds just got away from your mechanical efforts above, and you have a spray bottle of 2,4-D or whatever appropriate to the job, now is a good time to spray herbicide on just the weeds you see:
  ◦ Follow all label instructions—the label is the law.
  ◦ Keep 🚼︎ kids, 🐕︎ pets and 🚶︎ self away until dry.
  ◦ In a couple (four, eight, sixteen) days, monitor your effects.
  ◦ Among my weeds is hairy bittercress  Cardamine hirsuta.
• Early in the growing season, you can look into controlling crabgrass.

Other considerations

• Established lawns do not need fertilizer, and fertilizer is bad for critters in the soil. [1]
  So don't fertilize, unless you are trying to establish a new lawn on bare soil after a major grade change to your topography.
  
  
• To get your 🌾︎ grass to sink deep roots, water your lawn only once or twice a week, for 🕑︎ 2 hours if necessary. [2]
  I set my sprinkler timer box for twice a week, 24 minutes at a time.  Seems pretty good—I turn the timer box to OFF during wet periods far more often than I bump it up to three days a week during prolonged droughts.
  
  
• If you are a land manager, Mowing and Management:  Best Practices for Monarchs (.pdf).
  
  
• Whenever possible, try to landscape with native plants.
  
  
• If deer  family Cervidae are eating your shrubbery, consider building and installing deer-exclosure plant cages for areas of extreme predation (.pdf), and follow the tips in MSUE's article Smart Gardening to Deter Deer.
  
  
• If you have an area eligible for 🔥︎💦︎🌱︎☀︎🌾︎🐛︎🐦︎ prescribed fire/controlled burn.
  
  
• "How to Mow Your Lawn Using Math."
  
  
• "Hazards to Outdoor Workers" by CDC NIOSH.

References

^[1]  My notes indicate I heard Rick Darke say this at a conference 2015-03-07.  —EP 2016-10-01.

^[2]  My notes indicate I heard a speaker say this at the same conference as above 2015-03-07.  —EP 2016-10-01.

Allergies

If allergies ever interfere with an awesome night's sleep:

• Go see your ⚕︎ doctor about this stuff.  Perhaps you two will include a 💊︎ long-acting second-generation antihistamine, now dirt-cheap at Costco.  Perhaps other options.
  
  
• Consider getting a N99 or N100 HEPA room aircleaner, such as a Honeywell HPA100 or other air purifier.
  ◦ Put near your bed.  At bedtime, set to run on Low for 🕑︎ 2 hours.
  ◦ 🔥︎ When wildfires cover your town with smoke, put in your main room or hallway, and run on Low 24/7.
  ◦ Every 3 months, vacuum filter and consider ordering replacement filter Honeywell HEPA size "R".
  
  
• If your allergies are ever worse after mowing, vacuuming the basement, or sweeping/blowing out the garage.
  
  
• Before you go out to mow or exercise, you might take a look at:
  
  ◦ Air quality warnings at 🇺🇸 USA NOAA NWS National Weather Service air quality forecast > click your area.
  
  ◦ ⚕︎ Health warnings occasionally listed at 🇺🇸 USA NOAA NWS National Weather Service > upper-left=yourZipcode > Go > optional section Hazardous Weather Conditions optional link Air Quality Alert.
  
  ◦ Allergen levels (recent measurements) (choose location nearest you).
  ◦ Allergen levels (forecast) (give zipcode or state/county).
  ◦ Allergen levels—details by species (forecast by season, by state/county).
  
  
• The Right Native Plants in the Right Landscape Means Fewer Allergies (.pdf pages 1, 20, 21 and 23).

Happy breathing!

Respirator

If, after:

• mowing,
• vacuuming the basement, or
• sweeping/blowing out the garage,

allergies ever interfere with an awesome night's sleep,
get (and use!) a 😷 P100/​N99/​similar HEPA respirator/​filter mask that removes from the air 99.97% or 99% of particulates down to 0.3 µm (1/50,000 in) (about the size of a virus).

After purchasing your respirator, please continue:

• Learn how to adjust and verify the fit of your respirator.
• Before donning your respirator, drink a 🚰︎💧︎ tall glass of cold water.
• While wearing your respirator, take frequent breaks, with more 🚰︎🚰︎💧︎ tall glasses of cold water—your respirator makes it more difficult to dump heat.
• Learn how to clean and dry your respirator.   If wearing your respirator while mowing, you are going to be sweating into it a lot.  If your mow takes you over an hour, you want to clean it after each day.  Shortly before I found this video, I discovered that I can disassemble my 3M 7502 above into three parts by separating the stiff darker pieces at the nose bridge at the embossed "M" "7502".  Cleans ways better (you can actually rinse all the spit and soap), and dries way faster (hours, not days).  Do a good job, and you don't get a stale smell the next time you don your mask!

Happy mowing, vacuuming, sweeping and blowing!

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--Eric Piehl comments on web mow.html v1.0.5.1 2019-12-04, copyright © 2015-2019 by Eric Piehl.