When it comes to lawn maintenance, there are a number of factors that should be considered. Today, though, we’re discussing the time of day. If you’ve never factored the time of day and its corresponding weather into your decision of whether or not to go out and cut the grass, maybe it’s time that you do.
Below, you’ll find some helpful information about the best and worst times of day in which to mow your lawn or do any kind of lawn maintenance.
Best
8:00 – 10:00 am
Starting with the beginning of the day, one of the most optimal times to mow your lawn is from 8:00 to 10:00 am. You may have heard that “the earlier the better”, but this is only true to an extent; mowing too early can be a problem, which we’ll get into a bit later.
8:00 to 10:00 am is one of the best times because, by that point in the morning, the previous night’s dew and moisture have begun to evaporate, making the grass dry enough to mow. In addition, it’s generally just starting to warm up during this time but won’t be too hot.
4:00 – 6:00 pm
Coming in second best is the window between 4:00 and 6:00 pm. By this time of day, the temperature should have reached its peak and be steadily decreasing. Your lawn will also have a few hours to recover from the trauma of being mowed before nightfall, which is a bonus.
The only thing with this time of day, though, is that it tends to be a prime time for the emergence of bugs like mosquitoes.
Worst
6:00 – 8:00 am
This early in the morning, even though it’s not hot outside and there are likely very few bugs, you’re going to run into more trouble than it’s worth if you try to mow your lawn. The main problem here is that the grass is wet.
This can lead to your mower leaving tracks in the grass as well as wet grass clogging your mower’s motor.
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Although there is nothing really wrong with mowing your lawn during this window of time, it’s best practice to void it if at all possible. As we mentioned before, your lawn needs time to recover before temperatures dip too low during the night.
Mowing so close to nightfall means that your lawn has very little time to recover. This is important because lawns are most prone to damage during the night, so if it hasn’t fully recovered from mowing, it’s more likely to become sick and/or die.
While there are certainly good and bad times to mow the lawn, no one is telling you when to do it. The decision is solely up to you, the mower, and factors such as where you live, the current weather patterns, and your individual schedule should come into play as well as our recommendations.
