Last Mowing

[FishingIdiot]

I'm planning on doing my last mowing of the year this Tues. or Wed before it turns cold.

I'm planning to mow it much shorter than I left it last year (been getting increasingly shorter this last month), in hopes that it helps deter the voles moving in over winter. Last Spring, that was a nasty surprise.

Can anyone else confirm that this helps?

[lawman]

In my neighborhood voles are hit and miss. It doesn't seem to matter how long your grass is. Those critters live under the heaviest snow cover. I have had that same surprise a couple times and the length of the grass does not seem to be a factor. Short grass does keep the snow mold down though.

[echotrail]

FM members who have more knowledge of lawn care than I do said it's better to leave your grass cut a little longer over the winter and there will be less chance of lawn disease (Winter kill). They said it was something about more nutrients being stored in a longer grass blade than a shorter one, so I'm leaving mine a 1/2" longer than last year.

[LwnmwnMan2]

We don't change the height from spring to summer to fall to winter on our properties.

It's always 3 - 3.5" tall.

There's alot of people that say if you cut it short, you'll reduce winter kill and snow mold.

If you research the turf universities, there's alot of talk about leaving it a bit longer, for the reasons that echotrail said.

Even though it's winter, the grass blade is still aborbing SOME nutrients from the sun. Not alot, but some. So, with that said, the longer the blade you get (obviously without getting a 5" blade that's laying over like mowed hay) you're going to get whatever nutrients from the winter sun you can.