2nd April

The first lawn mowing of the year! After tea tonight I finally got round to dragging the Flymo out of the shed and changing the height settings on the blades to a higher level than the lowest cut possible from last summer. It was great to cut the lawn with my assistant gardener because it meant that Daddy had to have the lawn cleared. Off went the balls, plastic toys, scooter, dumper truck, buckets, and all the sticks and twigs that some little chap brings back from a patch of land he goes past on his way back from his playgroup. The lawn looked tidier even before it had been cut. It is enjoyable to watch my assistant help me mow the lawn. I bought him a FisherPrice lawn mower for £2 from the Recycling Centre (council tip), and so there he was, with his mower, waiting to begin. As soon as the Flymo leapt into action, so did he and off he went, running up the garden mowing the grass. I would look up every so often to see him, fairly systematically, mowing away, helping out Daddy.


Needless to say - not my lawn!

 
The high blade setting doesn’t really take off much grass, and I much prefer the first decent cut of the year, but you’ve got to start somewhere. I then thought I would take a leaf out of gardening advice books and magazines, and I raked the lawn to collect dead grass and various debris as well as a fair bit of moss from the part of the lawn that is in shade thanks to our neighbours’ fence. I put a larger quantity of green matter into the compost bin from that than from the mowing. I ended by plunging the garden fork into the lawn all over the shaded area to give some air and drainage to the moss affected area. I could have also applied some sharp sand into the holes made by the fork to keep those drainage holes open, but it is a fairly fiddly job and I don’t have a month of Sundays in which to do it. When I can get to the sharp sand in the shed, I will just give a light sprinkle on the surface. This changes the soil condition slightly to make it less favourable to the moss. The lawn certainly looks as though it has had some work on it which is good.

Next post: 4th April