Lawn care guide · Melbourne
When to mow your lawn in Melbourne
Melbourne's four real seasons each ask something different of your lawn. Here's when to mow, how often, and how high — right through the year.
Lawn care guide · Melbourne
Melbourne's four real seasons each ask something different of your lawn. Here's when to mow, how often, and how high — right through the year.
Melbourne's climate
Melbourne sits in a temperate zone with a genuine four-season climate, and your lawn responds to every shift in it. Get the timing right and the grass thickens, crowds out weeds and shrugs off summer heat. Get it wrong — mowing too low going into a frost, or letting growth surge unchecked through spring — and you spend the rest of the year fighting your own lawn.
Most lawns across the inner-north are warm-season grasses (kikuyu, couch and buffalo), which means they grow hardest when it's warm and slow right down when it's cold. Your mowing calendar should follow that rhythm rather than a fixed weekly habit.
Spring · Sep–Nov
Spring is the busiest mowing window of the year. As soil temperatures climb past about 15°C, warm-season lawns wake up and grow fast — sometimes faster than once a week can keep up with. Start the season with a slightly lower ‘reset’ cut to clear the tired winter growth, then settle into a regular weekly or fortnightly schedule as growth accelerates.
Spring is also when a consistent schedule pays off most. Skip two or three cuts during the surge and you end up with an overgrown lawn that's far harder — and more expensive — to bring back.
Summer · Dec–Feb
Through a Melbourne summer the rule is simple: raise the blade. Longer grass shades its own roots and the soil beneath, holding moisture and resisting the heat stress that turns lawns brown in a January heatwave. Scalping a lawn short in summer is the single most common mistake we're called out to fix.
Growth is still strong, so keep the frequency up — but never remove more than a third of the leaf in one cut. On the hottest weeks, mow in the cooler morning or evening rather than the middle of the day.
Autumn · Mar–May
As temperatures ease, growth slows and you can gradually stretch the gap between mows. Autumn is a good time to keep the lawn tidy and clear of fallen leaves, which smother the grass and invite disease if left to mat down. Drop the height slightly toward the end of the season, but don't go too short heading into winter.
Winter · Jun–Aug
Warm-season lawns are largely dormant through a Melbourne winter and may need mowing only every few weeks, if at all. The key risk is frost: never mow a frosted lawn, and avoid cutting too low, as longer leaf protects the crown through the cold. Cool-season lawns (fescue, ryegrass) keep ticking over and may still want an occasional tidy.
FAQ
Your neighbours in Pascoe Vale South
We mow, edge and blow down lawns across Pascoe Vale South and the inner-north every week. Free quote, same-day reply, no lock-in.