Have you ever put off mowing the lawn just a couple days too long? Life gets busy, and before you know it, you’re zipping across the yard with your mower set to its normal height.
A few days later, you see a dreaded brown color in your lawn and begin to panic. Many people attribute the brown discoloration to disease, but more often than not, it may be the result of lawn scalping due to improper lawn maintenance.
What Is Lawn Scalping?
Grass scalping is mowing the lawn so low that you cut the grass blades off at the growing point or crown. The taller the grass blade, the higher the growing point.
Scalping results in an ugly browning of your lawn, and your grass will need time to recover from the damage. Sadly, some types of grass don't recover well from scalping and effort should be made to avoid it happening. Bermudagrass and other types of warm season lawns typically recover from scalping (with extra water and fertilizer); it's less realistic to expect Tall Fescue lawn to recover from scalping so plan to overseed them in the fall.
Once you learn the signs of grass scalping, they become easily recognizable:
- Straight Brown Lines: A dead give away is that these swaths are usually about the width of your mower
- Curved Lines or Arcs: These are created when the mower turns, often at the edge of the lawn
Scalped Bermuda lawn showing straight and curved mower scalping patterns.
How Can I Prevent Lawn Scalping?
1) Learn to Recognize the Growing Point
To avoid scalping your lawn and turning it brown, don't mow off the growing point. Learn how to recognize the growing point for your type of lawn so you can avoid cutting it off.
2) Get the Height Right
Never let the grass get so tall that you cut off the growing point. The less frequently you mow, the more likely you'll end up cutting off the growing point (scalping).
Here's a table, so you can look up the height for ideal lawn care for your type of lawn. Make sure to keep your lawn mowed within the range indicated:
If unusual circumstances arise and result in taller-than-average blades, measure the blades and ensure that you remove no more than 1/3 of the blade at a time. Gradually reduce the cut height every mowing after that. This may mean mowing more frequently until you’re back down to the recommended height. We talk about this technique at length in How to Tame Tall Grass.
3) Mow Frequently
The number one best thing to do to prevent scalping is to mow your lawn often. If your lawn looks like it needs to be mowed, you probably waited too long to cut it.
We can’t stress this enough. Frequent mowing is a must for the health of your lawn, especially with quick-growing grasses like Bermuda.
Even if you have a lawn maintenance service, their mowing may not be frequent enough. Consider asking them to come mow every week, rather then every other week. When your lawn is mowed frequently, you will see an improvement in the density and thickness of your lawn.
During rainy seasons, you will likely need to mow on the more frequent end of this table:
4) Get a Robotic Lawn Mower to Mow Frequently for You
Robotic lawn mowers have the ability to mow your lawn without you or a landscaper on the scene. These machines continuously take care of the mowing part of lawn care, at the correct height. Even better, they cut off a little of the grass blade each day so you lawn never gets scalped.
Also called autonomous mowers, they can mow in light rain, preventing mowing from getting even further behind. Some models are equipped with weather timers to adjust to the amount of rain your lawn gets and extra growth because of it. However, if you would prefer a mower that doesn’t mow in the rain, many robots can be controlled through your smart phone and tracked when you’re not home.
The edges of this Bermuda lawn were scalped by a landscaper, but the green middle section was consistently maintained by a robotic lawn mower. 
5) Bonus Hack! Level Your Lawn to Reduce Scalping of High Spots
If you have high spots that are repeatedly getting scalped by your mower, you can smooth them out by filling in the low spots with sand. We blend Level Mix so you can spread the sand along with compost for a shot of nutrition too. Learn how to finally have a golf course lawn by spreading Level Mix: How to Topdress and Level a Lawn.
