Tackling the Lawns

Small, or far away...?

This time of year, you really can watch the grass grow... You can almost see it heave itself upwards before your very eyes.

Hubby's done all the mowing since the move - a Herculean effort of one man & a flymo against the marching sward. Mind, this early Summer cycle of sun & showers means that keeping on top of it has more than a whiff of Sisyphus about it.

It's time I went to mow.

The South Lawn

Done & dusted on Wednesday evening. Yay!

It's about the size of the old lawn but the terrain is a tad more challenging. New house is on top of a small hill, & the land falls away quite rapidly on most sides. We're not talking cliff-side gardening here, but it's no snooker table either.

The South Lawn has 2 key obstacles: The sharp drop to the Big Beech Hedge; & the loop around the Laburnum.

On a slope & heavily shaded, neither spot is ever going to be lush & verdant lawn, but at the mo we're happy with bramble-&-nettle-free.

Even with these tricky bits, I guess it took less than an hour. Most doable on a sunny weekday evening. Marvellous.

The North Lawn

I didn't bother timing this task, largely cos I didn't want to rush myself. Getting it done Saturday morning before the rain arrived was going to be a close call, but let's not go mental & be exhausted by Noon, eh?

The North Lawn is an isosceles triangle to the West of the drive. A 20m run up by the side of the gravel, then 15m in front of the house, then back along the boundary hedge. It slopes mostly North West, is pretty damp, & is balding in many places due to mature trees past & present.

Not as flat as it looks...

Hubby gave it a weed n feed a few weeks ago & that's done wonders, but in some areas the measures may need to be more drastic - there's a row of Leylandii by the road & they are big. The heavy shade from them stops anything growing underneath - not even brambles or ivy dare to tread.

We already know our Westerly neighbours are not fans of the Leylandii, but they're also not 100% sure who they belong to. We'll need to have a sleuth around before getting the chainsaw out...

The North Lawn is also home to a smattering of daffs. They made us feel very welcome as we moved in during April. Their dying back leaves make mowing a bit of a slalom though, so I used Mum's old technique of tidying them up. The theory says the longer the leaves are photosynthesising, the stronger the bulb next year.

Use an old flower stem as the tie - they're stronger than the leaves

Not that Mum uses this technique anymore. I'm not surprised - it's a bit of a chew on! But to me they look like little haystacks & I'm enjoying that :)

With a little help from Hubby, who mowed while I tied, we were done just as the first spots started to hit. Timing!