# How late will we mow in New England this year?



## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

I usually try to be the last one to stop mowing in Massachusetts  but I would love to hear from you if you are in NE and when you usually stop mowing?


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

I'm expecting that I may have 1 or 2 more. But that's mostly because of the leaf clean up. My back yard has slowed down significantly because of lack of sun and low temps. My front still gets a good charge of sun and decent temps for this time of year. It's definitely starting to slow down.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Sounds about where I am too. We will see some more leaves dropping but the bulk of them are down now.


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## jdc_lawnguy (Oct 30, 2018)

I am in Northern MA. Have 99% of my leafs up and my area is expecting snow Thur/Friday

I am think the only thing I will do with my mower is pull it out for one last joy ride, then clean the deck and put her back before pulling the battery and calling it a year. ☹


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## desirous (Dec 15, 2017)

The past two years, my last leaf mulch was 12/3. As long as the snow is melted and grass is not frozen, I expect approximately the same this year. There are plenty more oak leaves that keep falling.


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

My grass is done growing in CT. 95% of my maple leaves are down. We're supposed to get 5-8" snow tomorrow. I'll probably mow one last time and bag to clean things up a bit if I get a chance.


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## Alpine (Mar 15, 2018)

Same here - grass growth has pretty much stopped, but I continue to mulch leaves. My neighbor has a large Bradford pear that holds it leaves until early December. I will continue mulching leave for a few more week - or until the snow arrives. Neighbors think I'm nuts mowing my lawn in December.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Typically early December, due to grass still needing to be cut, HOC needing to be lowered, leaves needing to be gotten rid of, or needing to mow again to check if growth stopped. Typically leaves are the biggest reason to keep mowing beyond early Dec. Unfortunately it gets tougher to do as time goes on though due to conditions being too cold or wet to mow.

On a different note, I may have been the first person in New England to mow last Winter. Yes, Winter...it wasn't even Spring yet...my first mow of 2018 was Feb. 28th last year. I don't expect that to happen most years.


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## tgoulart (Jun 21, 2018)

In Maine, last mow was last weekend. Proceeded to take the deck off and put the snowblower on. Good timing.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

tgoulart said:


> In Maine, last mow was last weekend. Proceeded to take the deck off and put the snowblower on. Good timing.


Yes, we got the same yesterday. I didn't get my snow equipment ready quite yet. I think we may have another week or two here and then I will move onto the snow gear, Nice to see your pic, nice place up there.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

The temp was 43 degrees today. I had to get out and use the lawn tractor to pick up the leaves. The ground wasn't frozen, there wasn't frost. I took it easy and the lawn wasn't cut,
I kept it on the highest setting to avoid cutting any of the grass. The setting was good enough to suck up all the leaves. Has anyone had any issues with lawn damage being out in the low 40 degree temps? I really didn't have any choice, the lawn is too big for a push mower and a leaf blower. The leaves were tamped down from the recent snow fall we got, so I need to get out there any get them collected. They were starting to smother the grass. The future temps are also going to be below freezing. Hope I didn't screw anything up!


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

So this was it for me today. Got too cold. Last mow of the year, including the snow too. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/jZA38wcnpJU


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

My grass recently stopped growing. I need to do one final trim and mow.
The leaves, on the other hand, keep coming.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Green said:


> My grass recently stopped growing. I need to do one final trim and mow.
> The leaves, on the other hand, keep coming.


I'm in the same boat. The leaves have been brutal. This weekend, the temps are supposedly going to be in the high 40's/low 50's. I'll be out again with the tractor sucking them up if that's the case.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> Green said:
> 
> 
> > My grass recently stopped growing. I need to do one final trim and mow.
> ...


They sure have. Seems like I have 4x the reg amount of them. Today was so nice that I ended up switching my snowblower back on my mower and mowed them all up AGAIN. I think that's it for now! Thats our life here...12 degrees yesterday, 50 today!


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Leaves have been relentless this year, holy
crap. I still have a good amount to suck up but the ground is frozen and the highest up here in mass is going to be 44 degrees on Friday/Saturday. I really want to get them off the lawn before the snow sets in but also don't want to compromise the grass either. Any thoughts?


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## jdc_lawnguy (Oct 30, 2018)

I am having the same internal battle. I have already pulled batteries, but I have a neighbor whose leaves have blown down into my yard on one side.

I really don't want to redrag out my machine, and really really don't want to rake &#128526;


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## GoPre (Oct 28, 2017)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> Leaves have been relentless this year, holy
> crap. I still have a good amount to suck up but the ground is frozen and the highest up here in mass is going to be 44 degrees on Friday/Saturday. I really want to get them off the lawn before the snow sets in but also don't want to compromise the grass either. Any thoughts?


Same boat, maddening. I am going to get to work this weekend as well. I'm fortunate, I only have 2100k. I am going to blow the leaves into my driveway and bag them there. Trying to limit my time walking on the lawn.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Thats my problem. I mostly use my lawn tractor to bag the leaves but with the way the weather is going, I'm not going to be able to do it due to the hardened soil. My only option is to leaf blow 15k square feet.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Scagfreedom48z+ said:


> The temp was 43 degrees today. I had to get out and use the lawn tractor to pick up the leaves. The ground wasn't frozen, there wasn't frost. I took it easy and the lawn wasn't cut,
> I kept it on the highest setting to avoid cutting any of the grass. The setting was good enough to suck up all the leaves. Has anyone had any issues with lawn damage being out in the low 40 degree temps?


With a push mower, I haven't had issues above 38 degrees or so. Not sure about a heavy riding mower. I agree with keeping the setting high to avoid cutting anything at this point. That said, my lawn has already lost its color even though I cut for the last time when it was still above 32 at night.


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## desirous (Dec 15, 2017)

I did my last leaf mulch for the year on 12/1. Oak leaves keep falling, but I am not doing anything at this point. Grass is dormant and leaves are not going to smother it. It's also frozen most of the time, walking on it would do more damage. I expect to do the spring cleanup mow / leaf mulch around mid-April, same as last few years.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

My final mow was on 11/24/18.
My final use of the lawn mower (to pick up leaves only) was on 12/14/18. Everything else after that has been done with a rake and (handheld) blower.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Crazy how our new England weather is. We had snow once this season, sub freezing temps. Now we are at 60 degrees again  This happened a few years ago and it was almost 70 degrees on Christmas Eve and then we got 3 months of terrible snow. You never know here.


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## silvercymbal (Sep 17, 2018)

Green said:


> My final mow was on 11/24/18.
> My final use of the lawn mower (to pick up leaves only) was on 12/14/18. Everything else after that has been done with a rake and (handheld) blower.


You beat me on that one! We still got a ton of leaves after my last mow.


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## jimbeckel (May 27, 2018)

silvercymbal said:


> Green said:
> 
> 
> > My final mow was on 11/24/18.
> ...


After watching one of your youtube videos I bought one of the oil vacuum pumps to do maintenance, what a game changer, less mess and quicker oil changes. Thanks for the informational video.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

@silvercymbal

Here, the storm brought over 4 inches of rain yesterday and some branches, more leaves, and some pieces of newspaper into the yard. Tomorrow, I will pick up sticks, do a leaf cleanup (with the handheld blower and a rake), put away the last two hoses, etc. How did it go where you are with the rain?

I'm pretty sure it was 2016 that was really warm for Christmas Eve...it was 72 here.


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