As of mid-September 2026, the St. Augustine in my Houston yard is still growing like it’s July, and my old plan was simple: drop the mower deck low, cut it short, and buy myself an extra week before the next mow. Fewer trips behind the mower, more time on the porch. I thought short grass meant a longer break. Turned out it’s the other way around.
The county extension office here posts Texas A&M AgriLife’s St. Augustine maintenance sheet, and it says it in one line: “The lower the mowing height, the more often you will need to mow.” It adds that frequent mowing at a lower height produces higher quality turfgrass. So short can look good. It just isn’t less work. The same sheet treats scalping, cutting with a rotary mower at its lowest setting, as a spring dethatching step that will likely damage the lawn, with recovery depending on fertilizing and watering properly.
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What Texas A&M AgriLife Extension says
AgriLife’s mowing recommendations for warm-season turfgrasses are direct: “Lower-mowed turfgrass will generally require more frequent mowing and greater overall inputs (e.g., irrigation, fertilization, pesticides) than turfgrass that is maintained at a slightly higher height.” The same page says a higher height of cut will generally require less frequent mowing, based on the one-third rule.
Why short backfires
AgriLife’s St. Augustine lawn management page says shorter mowing heights will require more frequent mowing to prevent scalping or injury to your lawn. And when scalping happens anyway, it spells out the damage: “frequent scalping will increase the likelihood of weed encroachment by exposing the soil to sunlight that promotes weed emergence and growth.” Another AgriLife mowing sheet says scalping will put grass at a competitive disadvantage and eventually lead to the decline of lawn quality…