Anyone else started cutting their grass yet?
Ground felt firm enough, so out with the mower. Reluctant to start but did eventually. Last years petrol still in it, and oil that's god knows how old.
And now the battle with the moss and weeds commences yet again, just when I finally got them under control by the end of last season. All this wet weather has made the moss come back worse than ever. My neighbours lawn, who does nothing but occasionally mow it when they can be bothered looks in a better state than mine does - grrrr.
edit - fit cut? I meant first cut
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 29 Mar 13 at 20:06
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>> Anyone else started cutting their grass yet?
about 4 weeks ago when we had that brief glimpse of spring
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Did it last weekend at the front of the house - the "field" at the back will be done soon - next door did their's today. The tractor's battery has been on Optimiser for a week or so now.
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Can't find my grass. It's still under a foot* of frozen snowdrift from last weekend.
*Except for the bit next to the drive. That's got 3 foot on it.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 29 Mar 13 at 20:11
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>> Can't find my grass.
How appalling for you Dave. Try to remember everywhere you went after you got home last night. Look on all the surfaces.
What clothes were you wearing? Who were you with? It may be worth consulting them.
Nightmare. I feel for you.
:o}
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No not yet. Thankfully it's very slow growing and the neighbour loves gardening so does it for us. It's pretty small and it's one shared garden out back.
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Yes....gave it one cut about 10 days ago. Since then it's stopped growing, so it's all on hold.
Did a really stupid thing though, last week. I advertised an old Land Rover on e-bay and drove it down to the bottom of the garden to get some nice pictures. When finished, as there is some concrete hard standing next to some old, tired outbuildings, I left it there....
....then we had a shed load of rain.
....then someone wanted to come and look at it
...then I tried to get it back up a grass slope.
It's a Landie. It has new, good quality, off road tyres. The 4x4 system and low box all work as they should do....so shouldn't have been a problem.
Well let's just say that part of the lawn now looks like the army have been on maneuvers. What a mess. It didn't help that it ran out of petrol on my first run up.
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>> >> Anyone else started cutting their grass yet?
>>
>> about 4 weeks ago when we had that brief glimpse of spring
>>
Same timing as me ( I am just a few miles from Z)
Not only was it warmer but we had a couple of dry days and a significant breeze.
My mower is a heavy cylinder type which would just flatten the now tall grass so I attacked with my old strimmer. I got aabout 90 per cent done and the strimmer gave up.
Pleased with the grass now at the right height for the mower but now deciding which strimmer to get.
Think I might ge ta Bosch mains Combitrim.
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..............and the last cut, too.
tinyurl.com/cgqqhuo
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Still in the the 'too difficult to do tray' then?
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Cut the grass?
When it's still covered partially with snow up to 200cms deep?
Must think about that...:-)
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I was planning on cutting it today as it was drying out nicely. However we have had a dusting of snow here in North Kent overnight and it is still snowing lightly now, so its been put back to another time !
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Spring here in the West - Gulfstream keeping the white stuff away from Mona's Isle. Out on the bike later.
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I thought the stuff doesn't grow at temperatures below five centigrade. It looks like mine hasn't.
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>> I thought the stuff doesn't grow at temperatures below five centigrade. It looks like mine
>> hasn't.
>>
It doesn't. Ask any sheep farmer; my job's absolutely flat out delivering compound feeds to supplement the dwindling (and increasingly expensive) sileage.
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Similarly spuds won't grow yet. They need the soil temp to be at least 6C so don't plant yet - they will just rot in the ground.
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I doubt its been above 6c since I last cut the grass, but its growing again. Albeit slowly.
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Knot cut mine yet, s'not growing = good!
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It's the soil temperature that's critical. Grass needs 4-6C Spuds won't grow under 6
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Pushed lawnmower onto lawn this morning. Watched it slowly sink up to the axles in the clay soil. Put lawnmower back into hibernation.
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Went out on Friday for my annual birthday treat...a trip around the local garden centres for plug plants with Ian paying the bill:)
I like to grow them on myself and plant them in baskets and tubs and keep them in the greenhouse until the end of May.
We were surprised to find that no-one had any in stock apart from the Wyevales of this world, which I find ask grossly inflated prices.
I managed to find a few at a local nursery and persuaded them to let me have some only to find it was 26 degrees Fahrenheit this morning!
Mine were wrapped in a section of the greenhouse in a bubble wrap house with fleece over the top and fared fine!
Note to CG: Emptied some large tubs from last year with Begonia tubers and Cannas in and found the dreaded Vine Weevil again despite the nematodes last year so another solution is needed this year.
The Birthday budget is tucked away for a trip to the local nursery in a couple of weeks time when he rings me to say they are now in stock!
Pat
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Done ours today. A very rough job with the Qualcast push along but the grass is so knackered after the wet winter it was enough.
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Did the first cut yesterday, then took the scarifier over the lawns and the green wheelie bin is now full to capacity with mainly moss, even my fanatical gardener neighbour has moss in his lawns due to the poor weather and wet winter ...., note to self ....must get some weed and feed .
Looks a lot neater and tidier now, amazing what a bit of work can do......
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>> Went out on Friday for my annual birthday treat .............
Happy birthday, Pat.
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Thanks L'es it was a few days early but I expected to be able to spend a few happy hours over Easter in the greenhouse! I've been an April Fool for quite a few years now:)
Pat
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Our lawns haven't grown enough yet to warrant being mowed. Ironically, our council has restarted emptying the garden bins a fortnight earlier than last year but there's nothing to put in ours yet this year. In previous years I've had to put the first two mowings in the black bin.
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Our council have started to charge for the green bins this year- used to be free , now £29 a year .
I note they have started charging extra for daytime car parking and now charge in the evenings as well.....
Not happy with the council .
Oh and Happy Birthday from me too Pat ...
Last edited by: retpocileh on Tue 2 Apr 13 at 12:26
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"Our council have started to charge for the green bins this year- used to be free , now £29 a year ."
Buy or make a compost bin - Save money and improve your soil!
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 2 Apr 13 at 12:29
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I do have a compost bin but I have a substantial garden completely screened from view by high hedges and shrubs and produce so much green waste it soon gets full as well .
The suntrap rear garden screened from view of neighbours was one of my main reasons for buying the place....
One cut of the lawns and a scarify fills the substantial wheelie bin. It is emptied fortnightly so if I trim back the shrubs ,hedges and trees as well then I could quite easily fill a skip.
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3 compost bins, two daleks for 0.5acres here.
Not enough compost..
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"3 compost bins, two daleks for 0.5acres here.
Not enough compost.."
I know how you feel - You can never have too much compost!
If you have a lot of bulky plant waste buy a shredder. It's amazing how it will reduce the volume to about 10% of what you started with.
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>>If you have a lot of bulky plant waste buy a shredder<<
No, just pop over the hedge into the back field and have a bonfire...best smell in the world!
I've had one today and I smell like the bonfire too...must get in the shower!
Pat
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>> I do have a compost bin but I have a substantial garden completely screened from
>> view by high hedges and shrubs and produce so much green waste it soon gets
>> full as well .
Welcome to austerity UK.The working age poor have to pay for their spare rooms. It's not unreasonable for those who can afford a substantial garden in SE England to pay for collection of garden refuse.
We're all in this together you know!!
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>> We're all in this together you know!!
Council started charging for green waste collection about 8 years ago here.
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When did Councils start to collect green waste?
As a kid we had two galvanised bins for household waste. Nothing like enough space for grass clippings never mind pruning etc waste. Stuff that wasn't burned or composted had to be bagged and taken to the tip.
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"we had two galvanised bins for household waste"
Two! Luxury!
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Flash git....
Bryn Terfel is known as BrynTwoBins in the village where he lives...
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We're all in this together you know!! >
The problem is that I was paying for green waste collection from my substantial garden in my 'substantial ' council tax ....
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That what cuts in services are are - you pay the same and get less.
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Fit cut of 2013 - Zero
