Garden Maintenance
Weeding, mulching, bed tidying and clean-ups that keep a tropical garden from swallowing itself.
Learn more →Mowing built around the wet season
The single biggest difference between mowing in Cairns and mowing almost anywhere else in Australia is the December-to-April surge. Once the monsoon trough settles in, overnight lows stay in the twenties, rain falls most days, and warm-season grass grows at a rate that makes a fortnightly round pointless. Lawns that were comfortable on a two-week cycle in August need cutting every seven days by January.
We plan for that rather than pretending it is not happening. Standing customers get moved onto a weekly cycle as growth picks up and back to fortnightly when it eases, usually somewhere around May. You are not locked into a contract to do it — it is a phone call.
Turf types you actually find here
Most Cairns lawns fall into one of three groups, and each wants a different deck height.
- Buffalo is the common choice for shaded, established blocks around Edge Hill, Whitfield and Freshwater. It handles leaf litter and part shade, but it sulks badly if it is scalped, so the deck stays high.
- Zoysia turns up on newer estates and looks good cut a fraction lower. It knits tightly, holds out weeds well, and copes with the humidity, but it thatches if it is never dethatched.
- Tropical carpet grass, together with the volunteer guinea and para grasses that move in from cane headlands and creek banks, dominates unimproved lawns in the southern corridor. It is aggressive, seeds constantly and needs frequent cutting rather than clever cutting.
Getting that wrong is where most home mowing goes backwards. A short cut in the middle of the wet opens the canopy, sunlight hits bare soil, and nutgrass and sedges are through the lawn within a fortnight.
What a standard visit includes
A regular mow covers the cut itself, edging along driveways, paths, garden beds and fence lines with a line trimmer or a wheeled edger, and a blow down of paths and the driveway so clippings do not get tracked through the house. Gates get closed, and if there is a dog on the block the crew will not cut unless it is secured.
Clippings are mulched back in by default. Catching and removing them costs more because of load time and transfer station fees, and it is worth doing when the grass is seeding, when the lawn is being staged for sale, or when a rental inspection is due.
Where mowing stops and something else starts
A mowing round is not a garden makeover. Overgrown beds, spent mulch and self-sown seedlings are handled under garden maintenance. Hedges and screening shrubs belong with pruning and hedge trimming. Weeds in paving joints, along fence lines and in gravel are weed control work. Blocks over about half an acre, paddocks and easements go to acreage mowing and slashing because a domestic mower simply will not survive it.
We do not lay turf, install irrigation, or do tree work that needs a climber or a chipper. Say what you have got on the phone and you will get a straight answer about whether it is the right job for us.
Booking and pricing
Quotes are free and done on site. Published starting rates and the honest list of what moves a price up or down are set out in the lawn mowing price guide. To check the round comes past your street, look at the service areas list — it covers everything from Palm Cove to Gordonvale with notes on the local conditions.
More services
Explore our other services
Pruning and Hedge Trimming
Shaping hedges, screening plants and small trees so they stay dense instead of going woody.
Learn more →Weed Control
Spot spraying, hand weeding and knockdowns for paths, beds, fence lines and neglected lawns.
Learn more →Green Waste Removal
Loading and carting clippings, palm fronds and storm debris to a transfer station.
Learn more →Gutter Cleaning
Clearing leaf litter and grit out of gutters and downpipes before the wet season starts.
Learn more →Acreage Mowing and Slashing
Ride-on and slasher work for large blocks, paddocks, easements and vacant land.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How often does a Cairns lawn need mowing?
Through the wet season, roughly December to April, most lawns here need a weekly cut. Warm nights, daily rain and high humidity push growth to a point where a fortnight leaves you with hay rather than grass. From May to November a fortnightly round is usually enough, and some shaded buffalo lawns stretch to three weeks in the coolest part of the dry.
What height should grass be cut to in the tropics?
Higher than most people expect. Buffalo is generally kept around 40 to 50 millimetres, zoysia a little lower, and tropical carpet grass higher again because scalping it just opens the canopy for weeds. Cutting short in February is the fastest way to get nutgrass and sedges through a lawn. The deck goes up in the wet and down slightly in the dry.
Do you take the clippings away?
It depends what the lawn needs. Light clippings are usually mulched back in, which returns nitrogen and is better for the soil. If the grass has been left long, or it is seeding, or the lawn is being prepared for an inspection or a sale, the clippings get caught and carted off. Removal adds to the price because of tip fees and load time.
Will you mow a lawn that has been left for months?
Yes, but it is quoted as an overgrown job rather than a standard mow. Long grass in Cairns hides cane toads, snakes, dumped rubbish and star pickets, so the block gets walked first and cut in stages with a brushcutter or slasher before a mower goes near it. A follow-up tidy cut a week or two later usually finishes the job properly.
Can you mow rental properties for a property manager?
Yes. Rentals and holiday lets are a big share of the round, particularly at Trinity Beach, Manunda and Edmonton. Standing fortnightly or weekly visits, before-and-after photos on request, and invoicing to the agency rather than the tenant are all normal. Entry notice arrangements are the agent's responsibility to organise with the tenant.
Free, no-obligation