First Lawn Cut of the Year?

Hello all

Lots of interesting Points of View.

@Alisa

Unfortunately, I do not have anywhere available that I could put the Grass Clippings, even temporarily, also, due to my Health it would just add to things.

Also, I have no space for a Compost Bin and there would be no real need for one as there is only Me here and the amount of Compostable Waste would be negligible.

I will Start Cutting the Lawns in early March and go from there.

Thanks all

Kevin

 

I've cut our grass three times this year so far with the cutting's being put in the compost bin, ( according to the wife I get a bit 'anal' with my composting she doesn't understand the glee of the bin temperature readings I give her after returning to the house anyway back to the lawn , I find a good covering of chicken pellet manure applied around April makes for a long lasting greening up .

 

I'd love it if my compost bins could get hotter @steve (cambridge) but not much chance of that, despite being against the house walls and having a surrounding shelter to help insulate a bit.

Do you get any problems with foxes or other wildlife digging up the grass after applying the chicken pellets?

 

Hello @steve (cambridge)

Thanks for the Reply.

It is always nice to hear from a fellow CamTab

I was Born in Trumpington or as I always called it as a Child, Trumpton

Thanks for the Tip regarding the Lawn.

Both Lawns have recently been Scarified and Aerated so they are looking Sad at the moment

Kevin

 

Bit early in the morning I know, but the grass isn't wet, just heavily damp , I've been running over the back garden lawn with the lawnmower set 'next to the highest cut'. It looks like rain will arrive in an hour or so and I didn't want to miss the opportunity again.

I'll run out later on and sprinkle lawn fertiliser over the grass, not too sure yet if feeding the lawn is a good idea if it's going to rain.

Plan to let the grass clipping dry a bit before mulching fruit trees with them after I've given the trees a good Spring feed.

 

Mine had the first cut of the season yesterday. It would have been sooner but for all the rain, and then last week the mower would not start so I had to take it in to be serviced, an expense I was hoping to swerve this year. My usual service place had a three week wait just to be put on their waiting list and said it could therefore be five weeks before it’s done. The new John Deere yard that has recently opened said they could do it in three weeks.

Pro tem, I’m sharing my neighbour’s mower.

 

My lawn will get cut down to 3 inches or so April/May if it is ever dry enough. Then once every 4 to 6 weeks.

 

It hasn't stopped growing all through winter here, so ours was getting meadowy.. I cut it last week, it was a bit too damp because it was so long, but it cut ok. I want to give the daisies and self-heal a chance to come through, and let the birds get at the moss for their nests.
I just mow 'whenever' through the year - usually 'whenever' it starts bugging me cos it's too long, lol!!"

 

Hi ya , no problems at all with Foxes and the like, we have a 100 foot garden most of it lawn and it takes about six 10kg buckets of chicken poo to cover it all sufficiently the pellets need moisture to breakdown and I hope no one is watching or grass me up pun intended but if no rain falls we put the sprinkler on .

Re the compost temps mine is a large darlek located at the bottom of the garden mostly shaded I try to add a mix of cardboard plus green stuff and it works fine, get blooming hot in the summer too hot to handle sometimes

 

Hi Kevin
No probs I find the pellets long lasting for a good green up and only do it once a year..too bloody expensive to do more but like I say it works for me.
Trumpington eh ? just up the road from us we're about 15 mins walking distance from Addenbrookes

 

That's useful to know @steve (cambridge) - too wet and not enough growth yet to warrant cutting, but that's pretty standard here. Usually around mid April.
We just have to cut it when it's wet. If you waited for a decent dry spell for the grass itself to be dry enough, it would be a foot long!

It's difficult if you don't have the space for a compost bin @Kevin Cowans.
I never leave cuttings on the grass, as they'd just become a solid, wet mass, and I hate seeing them used as as mulch, so it would be the council bin for me if there was no compost bin. We all have to work with the situation we have. We're very lucky that we have collections all year round, although they introduced a charge a few years ago, and it's £50 this year. It all adds up.

 

I'm in the Conwy area and our grass was ankle deep in Feb so it had the first cut of the year then. Still OK ATM so maybe we can wait another couple of weeks for the second cut

 

One of my lawns is still under water, so no chance of mowing it.

 

Two cuts done already albeit with a the blades very high; Here in South Norfolk the grass has never stopped growing this winter and the moss is thriving too

 

Mine had its first cut in early February, and has had (I think) three more since then, mower still set high. I only have a push-along cylinder mower so I can't let it get too long or it's really hard to cut. I've been known to cut it in January if the weather plays ball.
I'm also in sunny Donny but I'm in the bit that has sandy soil and sandstone bedrock, in the lilac bit on this screengrab from the BGS Geology Viewer, so it drains like a sieve and the surface soil dries out quickly even when there's been a lot of rain.

Amazing how much variation there is in a relatively small area. Within a short walk from us there are areas with loam, clay and peat soils (should've been more careful when we were househunting!)