Should You Mow Before You Blow Off?

A man is blowing grass on the side of the road

For years people have debated about the order in which you service a lawn. Some say you must cut the grass, then edge, trim, and blow off all surrounding surfaces. Others say just the opposite or some other mixture of those steps.

Those arguing for mowing first claim that this is the best order since you can then trim edges of lawn to the precise height that you cut the grass at. Trimming after mowing also ensures that you don't miss any spots that are unreachable with the mower.

The second train of thought is that mowing should be done last, after trimming and blowing. This method ensures that all the clippings/dirt that is tossed onto roads/sidewalks are picked up in the grass catcher of the mower and not laid out on the lawn.

To my opinion, it all really comes down to a few things:

1) Where you live in the country

2) If you are bagging/mulching and the type of grass

3) Your time commitment to lawn

Here at Augusta Lawn Care Services we service clients in Blaine/Birch Bay, Washington. We encounter a lot of rain. We bag all the clippings from our jobs and spend as much time as needed to make the lawn look perfect. Thus, we use the second method; we trim and edge, then blow off all sidewalks, then mow the yard, then blow off again.

If you live in Southern States where it is hot and your grass type is different mowing first may be a more time-effective approach. However, in the Pacific Northwest, if you trim and edge there will be a lot of thick grass clippings and dirt along the driveway. I would rather have that junk in my trailer, being hauled off, than on the top of the freshly cut grass. We blow off sidewalks twice (after trimming/edging and after mowing) to ensure that any clippings dropped from the mower when it is being placed back into trailer are all cleaned up.

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