Now’s the time to get the mower out of the shed, make sure it starts and is ready to go when you need it in the next few weeks. Be sure to sharpen the blade and make sure the mower is working well mechanically. You should begin mowing at 3 inches or so once the grass plants start to grow and reach about 3.5 or 4.0 inches tall. This normally happens well before most of us start mowing because we see mostly brown leaf blades and we don’t think the lawn is growing. However, grass plants grow from the bottom up where the new green leaf material elongates near the soil, pushing the older brown leaf material up into view. The first mowing generally will remove almost all of the old brown leaves revealing a nice green lawn below. Though none of us want to do it, it’s better to start mowing your lawn too early than too late.