How Mowing can create Weed Problems

When you repeatedly mow an area that is not a sod grass lawn, you are making life hard for the desirable plants while making life easy for the fast-growing aggressive weeds and grasses that are causing you to mow in the first place. Very much like a predator/prey balance that has gone askew, the fast-growing weedy species will grow vegetation, flower and produce seeds quickly and more than once during the growing season. More desirable plants like perennial wildflowers and shrubs will only do it once and not at all if they are repeatedly mowed. On top of that they will not tolerate being constantly mowed and will die off, leaving the fast-growing weedy plants total dominion over the space. During the process of succession, these weedy plants act as a cover crop for the slower to establish plants like perennials, shrubs and eventually trees that will grow tall and change the site conditions so that the actual plant species are constantly changing; this of course takes many years.

By contrast if you make life harder for the weedy plants and let the desirable plants grow and complete their cycle so they can produce seed, you will be farther ahead. This is a pick-your-battle type of situation because there will also be many plants that are not problematic weeds you will just have to learn to live with, because they will never go away for good. We are of course talking about larger landscapes as opposed to urban lawns. Once you have started the mowing cycle it is hard to break free because the damage has already been done.

If you can approach it differently from the beginning and allow the grasses and wildflowers to grow, they will actually create a situation that makes it hard for the weed seed to make contact with the soil, and competition is high for space, light, water and nutrients. Dandelions must grow tall to compete with the grasses so they don’t hunker down the way they do when mowed, making them much easier to pull out especially after a good rain. Also a few dandelions in a bigger space are not really a problem the way, say, Canada Thistle is a problem. At the very least when you have a Thistle patch you should get out there, cut the seed heads off and put them in the garbage so they don’t spread that way – this really doesn’t take as long as you think. One way or another you will be out working to take care of your space.

I think this is a new way of looking at maintenance and that new ideas and tools will come forward all the time as we begin to place more value on these natural spaces. Naturalized areas provide such important habitat for the insects and wildlife that support the environment we count on to support us, we must support it as well. Consider high mowing by using weed whackers and hedge trimmers to target unwanted plants before they go into seed. Of course you must keep a fire safe space cleared around your house and outbuildings, but this is why you should have different zones that serve different purposes and are maintained differently as opposed to treating the whole area the same. If you are mowing and especially if you use a herbicide be sure to reseed the area with shorter grasses or desirable plants so that it is part of an overhaul and not a maintenance practice.