Meadow thing

Tried looking in lawns section for this but nothing there I could find.

Got a 5 acre field which takes me about 5 hours to mow with my 42" ride on. Long time. At the moment I'm only mowing it to keep the dandelions from seeding as we have thousands already. So at moment I'm mowing it about 12 hrs a week. Not good. The fields makeup is great right now - apart from I'm worried about the dandelions.

I don't want livestock on it as its a playfield. Ideally I'd have about an acre mowed like lawn, leave the rest to just grow out as a wildlife zone with paths mowed through it.

Which I think is great but what do I do about dandelions and their like? I "lost" a lawn before through neglecting it and don't want to do same. But don't want to fully redo it as meadow. I like just long grass and the occasional cow parsley, daisies etc.

How do I just let the field grow for most of the year without losing control to aggressive weeds?

Thanks for tips!

 

cut it in late August and remove all the clippings, if you lived by me I know local framers who would jump at the chance of getting hay for free.

Spruce

 

Hi,


If I just leave it till August won't all the dandelions go to seed and then ill have no grass just dandelions in a few months?

Gary