Farcebook

Tag: Grass

  • Mowing grass by hand

    Mowing grass by hand

    I’ve got a grass problem on my plot, the grass grows better than anything else. It’s a constant battle trying to keep the grass short and has so far caused the end of a petrol mower. I took my battery mower from home one weekend, but the batteries need charging half way through and I get the feeling the mower isn’t really designed for mowing such a large area. The batteries get quite hot.

    I also tried using a strimmer, it’s awkward and takes ages. So while randomly watching TV one night I saw a YouTube video of someone explaining how to service their push mower. Turns out these things aren’t just a prop you see on old cartoons, but really do exist. And they’re super cheap.

    Mine came from Amazon and actually cut the grass really well. It seems to eat through long grass pretty easily and doesn’t really get stuck. You do need to push it with some force to make the blades spin, and it locks up if something thicker than grass gets in the blades but otherwise works really well.

    There is a little grass catcher on the back, but I found the grass comes out so fast it often misses, and it’s awkward to remove to empty it. The thing fills pretty quickly too and after detaching it twice in two minutes I gave up and took it off.

  • Trying to repair my lawn

    Trying to repair my lawn

    Grass at home doesn’t do well, I don’t know whether it’s my inconsistent mowing, the shaded parts of the garden where the grass is, or that the soil is thick and full of heavy clay on a layer of building rubble. Possibly it’s also the slightly too agressive mowing I did last year in an attempt at making the grass more bushy and the lawn less patchy when mown.

    Either way, it looks a right mess, there’s barely any grass. So I’m on a mission to fix it.

    First I gave the remnants a mow, then pronged the ground to aerate it a bit and to break up the soil.

    Then I sprinkled on some fertiliser, grass seed and in one area where nobody goes, a few boxes of cheap wild flower mix. There’s one corner of the garden where grass doesn’t do very well, so I’m going to try growing some wild flowers instead. There’s usually a lot of grass amongst those mixes so it should fill out.

    The last step was to cover the whole thing in three bags of sand. This should keep the birds off, protect the seed while it germinates, and over time work its way into the soil helping to break it up.

    Now I just need to leave it alone and hope the cats don’t want to investigate a new giant litter tray!