5 Tips For Lawn Mowing in the Rain

Life gets busy.  The grind of the work week, traveling on weekends, or even working weekends doesn’t always give us enough time to get all the little things done.  One of those little things is mowing the lawn.  Maybe it’s been 2 or 3 weeks, you’ve been putting it off because you know that Labor Day weekend is coming up and you can get it done then.  And of course, with Murphy ’s Law in action, the forecast changes and Saturday through Monday call for a 110% chance of rain all weekend.  The lawn has gotten out of control, and at this point, just needs to get cut, because you have no time in the next couple weeks.   What do you do? 

Here are five tips for mowing that moderately to severely drenched lawn.  These tips hold true whether you’re hand push mowing a half acre lawn, or getting after your two acre mini pasture with a riding lawn mower. 

1. Mow with the side discharge facing out

If the side discharge is on the right side of the mower, mow in a circle going counter-clockwise.  If it is on the left side, mow clockwise in a circle.  Making sure you don’t shoot that clumped up heavy wet grass back into the grass you still have to mow will make life a lot easier. 

2. Go slow

 Even if it takes you an extra hour, your lawn will look much better the next day.  Wet grass beds down much more than dry grass.  If you’re going too fast, you will half cut a lot of random patches, leaving numerous little grass islands sticking up the next day when it dries out and you’re at work. 

3. Don’t cut the full width of the mower blade

Again, it will take more time, but if you just cut ¾ to ½ the width of the mower blade, you will miss much less grass, and the lawnmower won’t have to work near as hard spitting out clumps of wet grass.

4. Check the Underside for Clumped up Grass

Every so often, turn the mower off and check the undercarriage and blade.  Sometimes when the grass is too wet, it will clump up and stick to the underside of the mower.  This can start to hinder the blade rotation. 

5. Spread out the leftover clumps of grass

If you have a leaf blower, try and get up the next day and scatter some of those grass clumps.  If not, grab a rake and rake the clumps out.  If the clumps of wet grass stay there for too long, they can actually start to kill some of the grass below them, resulting in random brown spots throughout your nice green lawn.

 It’s not easy or fun putting your rain gear on and heading out to mow the lawn.  The neighbors will most likely look at you funny too.  Nonetheless, just smile and wave, because when you’re a busy person, sometimes you just have to mow your lawn in the rain.