While most homeowners are unaware, inappropriate mowing is among the most frequent causes of lawn issues. Cutting grass achieves more than just keeping your lawn elegant: it also maintains its health. 

How Often Should I Cut My Grass?

During the dormant season, you do not need to mow the grass as frequently as you do during the warm season. However, the frequency may differ depending on the type of grass in your field. The frequency at which you should mow your lawn is influenced by the rate of grass growth and the ideal height of your lawn. During the warm season, mowing once a week can be sufficient to keep your lawn healthy. The rest of the time, decrease the rate of cutting to only when necessary. 

The One-Third Rule

The secrets to ensuring a lush, green lawn are to keep your grass at an appropriate height and to avoid cutting too much at once. It may be enticing to hack away at a wild lawn, cutting the entirety of the length of grass blades in a single session, but this may affect the grass. Cutting your grass too short is as harmful as allowing it to grow too tall. 

When mowing the lawn, just trim one-third of the height of the grass blades at a time. Nevertheless, if the grass has grown too long, just cut off a third of the height of the blades and then progressively reduce the height to your preferred height. 

The Pros and Cons of Letting Your Grass Grow Wild

Pros

• Protects insect habitats: Most homeowners' lawn-care practices are targeted at maintaining groomed monoculture lawns. Allowing your grass to grow a little wild, particularly if you have a lawn, is highly beneficial to insect species. The tiny jungle provided by long grass provides them with a safe refuge to hide in.
• Saves you some money: Let's be realistic. Maintaining a flawless lawn requires a lot of time and effort, as well as resources. You must not only incur charges for lawn mower maintenance, chemical upkeep, and water costs to maintain your lawn cut and green, but you must also put in the time. Allowing your lawn to grow wild will help you save on the unforgiving costs of lawn maintenance.
• Helps save precious water resources: Landscape irrigation accounts for approximately one-third of all domestic water use in the United States. This averages to nearly nine billion gallons a day, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. That is a lot of water being used to maintain our lawns looking neat and healthy. With water becoming increasingly scarce, this practice is unsustainable. Letting your grass grow wild helps you save on this scarce and precious resource.

Cons

• Wild lawns are an eyesore: Wild grass is generally regarded as unappealing in lawns. The tall grass thins out, with some blades becoming significantly taller than others, giving the grass an irregular look. After a prolonged period without mowing, grass can go to seed, thus, resembling weeds rather than grass.
• Safety risk: Wild lawns are not only an eyesore, but they also pose a safety risk. Besides attracting vandalism, overgrown grass and weeds shelters rodents and bugs, which may be dangerous and undesirable in residential areas. Moreover, tall grass poses a health hazard by concealing trash and litter. This causes pollution and facilitates the spread of disease.

A lovely yard can enhance the glamour of your home, and a beautiful yard may require lots of trees. Planting trees in your yard could be the key to having your dream yard. Trees do more than just spruce up your yard; they also offer benefits to you and your neighbors. However, if you wish to adorn your yard with trees, here are some pros and cons to consider.

The Pros and Cons of Having Trees in Your Yard

Pros

• Privacy: Among the key benefits of tree planting is privacy. They block the view into your house or yard. This not only ensures comfort in your home, but it can discourage potential intruders who cannot see what is inside to loot. Trees can also camouflage eyesore fences, walls, and other parts of your yard that are dreary.
• Shade: People enjoy shade so much that they may build awnings or gazebos. However, if you have a lot of trees on your lawn, you'll have a natural source of shade. Consequently, trees shield other plants from direct sunshine and reduce water loss in lawns. This not only makes your yard alluring, but it also saves you costs on water because you would not need to water as frequently as when there is no shade.
• Environmental benefits: Trees not only benefit you, but they also impact the entire environment around your lawn. Animals and insects will benefit from them once they are planted as a means of shelter, food, and protection. Trees improve air quality by trapping toxic dust and pollutants and emitting the oxygen we require to breathe. Moreover, trees limit rainwater runoff, which decreases erosion and contamination of our waters. They can also mitigate flooding impacts. Trees, therefore, have a significant impact on resource conservation.

Cons

• They grow slowly: Planting trees is not a quick way to improve the appearance of your yard. It might take decades for you to get your dream yard, and this may not necessarily be worth the time and effort. Certainly, different varieties of trees have different growth rates. A red maple, for instance, can grow one to two feet annually, while certain trees can take up to 30 years to achieve their maximum size.
• Roots problem: Your tree's roots can spread, which will tamper with other stuff in or around your garden. Tree roots can cause subsidence and structural damage. Besides, roots cause havoc underground by eventually interfering with water lines and drains. If you have a leaking pipe in your lawn, roots will be drawn to it and begin to grow closer to it until it is damaged.
• They harbor pests: Most homeowners are unaware that the trees that grow in their gardens attract harmful and annoying animals and bugs. Trees often serve as a habitat for pests such as roaches and rodents. Plus, they keep them hidden, so you cannot easily notice their encroachment. The closer the trees are to your house, the more likely it is that bugs will invade your home.