How well you truly know your yard and the obstacles in it plays a key roll in your plan of attack to get the job done. (photo courtesy of Creative Commons)
Lawn mowing is not a task that you look forward to in any season, spring or summer. Nevertheless, it is vital chore, if you want a healthy and attractive landscape. Neglecting lawn mowing can make your lawn grow uninhibitedly, making the task of taming it even more difficult. And to top it all, the spots you had missed out make the task stretch even more. Therefore, the best way to get it over with is to cut down the mowing time as much as you can.
Consider the features
Based on the shape and size of the landscape, the fastest mowing method to use varies. And you may need to test a couple of ways before you decide on the one that is ideal for you. Most often features like ornamental trees, flowerbeds, landscaping rocks, walkways, etc. prevent you from mowing in an even way. To get over this obstacle, you should first start with the areas around such features before you start on the main lawn area.
Your weed eater is your friend. It’s the piece of equipment we all used to finish off the lawn’s final touches. (photo courtesy of Creative Commons)
Circular patterns
A concentric mowing pattern works better in reducing the frequency of your mowing turns. The circular pattern is efficient as you make the turns in identical direction. The turns are not sharp, so you can easily maneuver the mower and reduce the time taken. This pattern also comes in handy when you forget spots like around a tree or flowerbed. These can be done effectively by the circular mowing motion.
Double spiral pattern
While concentric mowing is considered an efficient way, it has one major drawback. You will end up right in the lawn’s center part. You will be causing unsightly tracks, as you get the mower out of the lawn and cause crushed vegetation. To avoid such a situation, taking up the spiral-mowing pattern would help.
This is more efficient when compared to the concentric pattern. Here you follow the same pattern, but leave behind a row that is not mowed in between the mowed ones. Once you reach the middle, you turn your mower with an S pattern and go back the way you came from mowing the rows you left in between. This way you end up on the corner that is opposite from the place you initially started out from.
Row patterns
This is one of the fastest and efficient ways to mow. The main thing you should be careful of is the direction you do the mowing in. If your lawn is wider and short in length, horizontal rows are best. If the length is more when compared to the width, mowing lengthwise will finish the job faster. When your working rows relate with the longest part of the lawn, the turns you have to make are reduced cutting down the time largely. In case your lawn is square, both directions can be used provided you overlap the rows a bit to prevent missing out some spots during the initial pass.
According to experts, proper maintenance of your mower also plays a key role in faster mowing. Mowing is also done faster when you do it early in the morning and avoid it when the grass is wet from heavy rain. Changing directions such as from horizontal to vertical pattern regularly gives the lawn a natural appeal. Similarly changing the cutting lengths also prevents scalping of your lawn, if it is uneven.
Resources:
https://ag.umass.edu/fact-sheets/lawn-mowing-0
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/fastest-ways-mow-yard-40022.html
https://www.ams.sunysb.edu/~estie/papers/lawn.pdf
https://blog.themathmom.com/2009/07/math-of-lawn-mowing.html
