How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn? A Seasonal Guide for Australian Lawns

There’s no single mowing schedule that suits every lawn. How often you should mow depends on your grass type, the season, how much rain or watering it gets, and how neat you want it to look. The good news is that a few simple rules make it easy to get right all year round.

Start with the one-third rule

The most useful rule in lawn care is to never remove more than one third of the grass blade in a single mow. If you want your lawn kept at 40 mm, mow it before it reaches about 60 mm. Cutting more than that in one go stresses the grass, exposes the stems, lets the soil dry out and gives weeds a chance to move in.

Instead of mowing on fixed dates, think of the one-third rule as your guide: when your lawn grows faster, mow more often.

Mowing frequency by season

Spring

Spring is when most Australian lawns wake up and grow fastest. Warm-season grasses such as buffalo, kikuyu, couch and zoysia come out of winter dormancy, and cool-season grasses put on strong growth too. Expect to mow every one to two weeks, and weekly for fast growers like kikuyu.

Summer

In warm, humid areas, summer growth stays strong and weekly to fortnightly mowing is normal. In hot, dry areas growth slows when lawns are short of water. Raise your mowing height a little in summer to help the lawn shade its own roots and hold moisture.

Autumn

Growth gradually slows as temperatures drop. Most lawns need mowing every two to three weeks. Autumn is also a good time to tidy edges and remove thatch before winter.

Winter

Warm-season grasses slow down or go dormant, especially where there are frosts. Mowing every three to four weeks, or only as needed, is usually plenty. Avoid mowing frosty or waterlogged lawns, which damages the grass and the soil.

Warm-season vs cool-season grasses

• Warm-season grasses (buffalo, kikuyu, couch, zoysia) grow fastest in the warmer months and slow right down in winter. They’re the most common lawns in most of Australia.
• Cool-season grasses (tall fescue, ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass) are common in cooler areas such as Tasmania, Canberra and parts of Victoria. They stay greener through winter and grow strongly in spring and autumn.

Signs your lawn is due for a mow

• It has grown more than a third above your usual mowing height.
• The edges along paths and garden beds have lost their shape.
• Seed heads are appearing on the grass.
• The lawn looks uneven or patchy where some areas grow faster than others.

Let us keep track of it for you

If keeping up with your lawn feels like a chore, our lawn mowing service can do it for you on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly schedule, adjusted through the seasons. Every visit includes edging and green waste removal. Request a free quote and we’ll recommend the right schedule for your lawn.