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Re: When to mow

In answer to Lynn Barnett, M.D.:

Mark Stephens has already made some good points about mowing, to 
which I'll add these:

There are different reasons to mow at different times. For new 
plantings such as yours, one or more, 4-6-inch, growing-season 
mowings during the first summer or two, will help keep the weeds 
down, while the prairie plants get established.

Mowing in fall will benefit spring-flowering prairie species such as 
shooting star, wild hyacinth and phlox. However, fall mowing may also 
favor cool-season plants such as Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, 
dandelions and other non-prairie species.

Mowing in spring leaves cover for birds thru the winter, and may 
help to smother some of the non-natives mentioned above during the 
winter when they grow at the expense of your prairie planting.

Mowing in mid to late June works even better for the purposes of the 
previous paragraph, but may destroy nests during breeding season. In 
small plantings, which are inadequate for nesting habitat, this will 
not be an important consideration. The advantage of June mowing is 
the regrowth is a little shorter than it would be otherwise by the 
end of the season, and the flowering species bloom more 
synchronously, making for a more striking display. The shortness and 
the dazzlingness of the planting when it grows out are good for 
neighbor relations, and mowing green stuff is far less dusty and 
unpleasant than mowing dead stems.

If you feel you don't have enough grasses in the planting, 
mowing in late July should help stimulate them, and will also result 
in late (thus showy but not productive of seeds) flowering of the 
forbs. 

You may want to vary mowing times over the years for different 
effects. 

Parenthetically, for schoolyard prairie plantings, I think early 
summer mowing is the way to go, since this brings a lot of species 
into flower together early in the school year when the plants can be 
observed and studied by students.



James C. Trager
Shaw Arboretum
P.O. Box 38
Gray Summit MO 63039
PH# 314-451-3512
FAX 314-451-5583
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