Every day or two, once the lawn is established and growing. Not at all for the first weeks of new grass. Less, and higher, through a cool-season summer. The honest answer is that it depends on the growth stage — and the same lawn wants three different answers in one year. Here's the whole year, and the tool that builds the schedule for your lawn.
Not sure what's going on with your lawn? Most people aren't. Why is it yellow, what is that weed, does it need fertilizer or water or just sharper blades? The free lawn check-up reads your words and your photos against your mapped lawn, your grass and your climate zone, tells you what it sees (and what a photo can't tell), and writes the first draft of your plan. It's preliminary — a soil test is still a $15 kit from your county extension office — but it's the right place to start.
Map my lawn — free Already mapped? Open your Lawn Care Plan →
The year, by growth stage
Heights below are the same numbers the app's Lawn Care Plan prints for your grass. The two columns are the two most common lawns we map: tall fescue for cool-season country and Bermuda for warm-season country. Your own grass is in the tool underneath.
| Growth stage | When | Cool-season lawn | Warm-season lawn | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshly seeded (or sod) | germination + 2–3 weeks | none yet | none yet | Seedlings pull out under wheels and tear under a blade. Wait for roots. |
| Establishing | weeks 1–4 after the first mow | once a week, then two or three times a week at 4.5″ → 4″ | once a week, then two or three times a week at 2.5″ → 2″ | The ⅓ rule with a margin: a young plant can't afford to lose much blade, and every light cut makes it spread. |
| Peak growth | the growing season's best weeks | every day or two at 3.5″ | every day or two at 1.5″ | Growth is fastest, so a daily pass takes a few millimetres — a weekly one takes an inch and shocks the plant. |
| Summer heat | June–August | every other day, at the top of the range at 4″ | every day or two — this is the season at 1.5″ | Taller blades shade the soil and the roots; cool-season grass is coasting, warm-season grass is sprinting. |
| Fall recovery | September–October | every day or two — the lawn's best weeks at 3.5″ | every two or three days, easing off at 2″ | Cool-season roots rebuild now; warm-season lawns carry a little extra height into dormancy for insulation. |
| Dormant | November–February | paused at 3″ | paused | Nothing is growing; a cut removes stored energy and opens the plant to winter damage. |
Your grass, your stage
Pick your grass and where it is right now. The cadence and height come from the same engine that writes the plan in the app.
every day or two at 3.5″
Not sure which grass you have? Start with the mixed-lawn page, or map your lawn and pick from photos in the app.
Why frequency and height are one decision
The rule under all of this is the ⅓ rule: never take more than a third of the blade in one cut. A weekly mower obeys it by cutting high and taking an inch. A robot obeys it by cutting a few millimetres every day or two — which is why it can hold the lawn at its ideal height permanently instead of sawing between "just cut" and "needs cutting."
That rhythm has a second payoff. Those daily clippings are too small to see; they drop between the standing blades, break down within days and hand their nitrogen back to the roots. Over a season that's commonly estimated at up to a quarter of a lawn's yearly feeding — fertilizer you didn't buy, spread evenly, every day. It's also why a robot run twice a week looks like a weekly push mow: longer clippings, visible lines between cut and uncut, and more work per blade edge.
So the honest sequence is: daily is the destination, not day one. New grass gets nothing, then a little, then more as it thickens. An established lawn gets its rhythm in season and a rest in heat and in winter. The height rides along: highest for young grass and summer, the middle of the range in peak growth, a notch lower for the last cuts of the year.
Build your robotic mowing plan
Three tools, in order. Each one is free; the first needs no account.
Keep reading
- Mowing new grass and sod with a robot mower — when the first mow is, at what height, and the ramp to daily.
- What kind of weed is this, and how do I get rid of it?
- Why does my lawn look brown a few days after mowing? — the ⅓ rule and blade care.
- Why is my lawn yellow? What fertilizer does it need?
- Robot mowers by grass type — the right height for every common grass, and why.
- Robot mower not cutting evenly? 7 fixes