☀️ Summer is when Sunshine Coast lawns really move. Warm nights, long days and storm rain push couch and kikuyu hard, and buffalo isn't far behind. The lawns that come through summer looking good usually have three things in common: they're cut at the right height, they're cut often enough, and they get a proper drink when it's dry.
📏 Raise the mower, don't scalp it
Cutting short to buy more time between mows is the most common summer mistake. A scalped lawn exposes the soil to full sun, dries out faster and leaves gaps for weeds. In the heat, a little extra height does a lot of work: the leaf shades the soil and the roots stay deeper.
Buffalo
Slower than couch but wants a higher cut. We sit the deck at about 40 to 50mm on lawns like Sir Walter.
Couch
Around 25mm on a tight, well-kept couch lawn. Go a notch higher through hot, dry spells.
Kikuyu
Fast and hungry. It needs regular cuts more than a low one, so you never have to take a lot off at once.
Shaded patches
Grass under trees has less light to work with. Leave it higher than the sunny parts of the same lawn.
✂️ The one-third rule
Take no more than about a third of the leaf off in one cut. That's why fortnightly mowing suits most Coast lawns through summer: leave it three or four weeks and you have to take far too much off, and the lawn goes yellow and patchy for a while afterwards. Our guide on how often to mow on the Sunshine Coast has the full schedule, season by season.
Mow more often, at a higher height. Frequency beats force.
💧 Watering: deep and occasional
Summer storms do a lot of the watering, but there are still dry, hot stretches between them. When you water, water deeply and less often, early in the morning, and follow any local water rules. A light sprinkle every evening keeps roots shallow, and a shallow-rooted lawn suffers more in the next hot week.
🌧️ After heavy rain
Give the lawn a day or two to firm up before mowing. Mowing soaked ground leaves ruts, tears the grass instead of cutting it cleanly, and is risky on a slope. If the grass shot up while you waited, raise the deck and bring it down over two cuts a few days apart rather than all at once.
🧾 What a summer mow should include
A proper service is more than a cut. Every T-Squared visit includes a cut height matched to the season, edging, a blow-down of paths and driveways, and the clippings taken away. See lawn mowing on the Sunshine Coast for what's included, or if you're not sure what you're growing, start with our guide to Sunshine Coast grass types.