The new mower, an electric rotary mower has done a sterling job on the garden, I’m pleased to say. I managed to get it done on Monday (spending my day off mowing the garden, I know!). It chucked it down Tuesday though so it’s all for the best. Unfortunately the wife wants the hedge cutting now so I’ll have to dig out my old hedge trimmers. Let’s hope they work after all these years!
Argh Its Broken!
Would you believe it, the weather’s been good! I thought I’d mow the lawn but lo and behold, the mower’s buggered. No, not because of that incident with the power cable, I fixed that. It’s something far worse, something my rudimentary mechanical skills have no chance with. So it looks like an impending trip to B&Q! I’ll take the boy along to teach him manly talents like choosing power tools and pushing industrial trolleys (not those girly supermarket trolleys). I’ve been doing a bit of research and it seems that the best type of mower is… a cheap one 
!
Dogs: Man’s best friend. A lawn’s worst enemy.
We got a boxer dog last year. Goodness but that dog is cute!! She’s a real handful – full of bounce and vigour. She’s a great companion for our little boy and they love to share our garden (although the gate blew off in the recent high winds, meaning they’re penned in by an overturned wheelie bin at the moment!)
However, all that pizazz and cuteness comes at a price. Pardon my French, but dog piss is no friend to your turf. I’ve struggled to get out to mow the lawn of late with the pitiable weather, but where the grass isn’t knee deep it is brown and dead. Female dogs are prone to re-using the same small patch again and again to urinate – which spells doom for your grass. Not only is the urine highly acidic, and therefore prone to burning the tender shoots of grass, but also extremely high in nitrogen. Nitrogen is normally thought of as a fertiliser, but like a lot of things that are good in limited amounts it can actually kill in concentrated doses.
Having consulted some books and websites, it transpires that there are only two courses of action:
- Train the dog to wee somewhere out of sight (not a chance!)
- Wash the lawn after she’s finished with plenty of water.
It’s too late for me – but watch out if you’re a dog owner and learn from my mistakes!!
I just realised…
… that we’re halfway through April and the weather has been so bad I haven’t mown the lawn yet. It looks like a miniature, low-lying jungle but I really don’t like mowing it when it’s wet.
Last year, I actually managed to run the mower over the power cable, so the prospect of electrocuting myself at the same time doesn’t really appeal, it must be said!!
Snow Moulds…
In case you haven’t heard of then, “snow moulds” are a group of fungi that can attack your turf – and in extreme cases kill areas of grass. Luckily it’s fairly easy to treat, but here is a pretty comprehensive overview of the disease and its treatment.
Leatherjackets in Turf
If, like me, you are a bit of a dunce when it comes to things with either too many legs (like centipedes and their fellow soily denizens) or not enough legs (worms and such like) then you’re probably alarmed to see things squirming through your soil and generally eating your grass and/or comestible vegetables.
Leatherjackets are one such creepy crawly that personally make me go all squeamish and girly. They are the larvae of the crane fly – which you may know better as the Daddy Long Legs. Although they may mainly appear to be a nuisance when banging noisily against your lights and inciting horror in all of those for whom dangly legs are an anathema, their most irritating phase is actually when they are still babies.
These little suckers like to chow down on the roots of your turf, damaging or killing the grass plants. The solutions are:
- Try pick them out by hand – in the early evening they are often visible at the surface crawling about in their grey-skinned, nightmarish way
- Apply nematodes. Nematodes are little worms that are parasitical on certain kinds of insect and bug. Specific species of nematode are available that purely eat leatherjackets. Buy a box, drop them on your lawn and let them eat the leatherjackets. Job done!
So, now you know!
Returfing…
Well. The time is nearly upon me when I finally get around to doing something about the lawn. Those of you who’ve been keeping up with things will have noticed my periodic, self-pitying moans about the tawdry state of my grass and my constant vows to sort the bloody stuff out.
It might not seem like the best time of life to be undertaking it – for I have a bun in the oven (or rather: The Wife does) and a 2 year old who you can be assured will be up to his neck in anything that takes place in the garden but I can procrastinate no more!
The first step is, of course, to figure out what the hell to do with the 45,000 tonnes (est.) of turf and topsoil I’ve already got in the garden. I’m guessing it will be a job where I’ll need to hire a skip (rather than skip higher) and be prepared for a few days solid graft with a spade.
Then, I’m guessing, I will have to put in some new topsoil in order to give the lawn a decent base… before finally buying some fricking turf and laying it. I can’t imagine it’s that hard a task but I shall – as ever – let you – the gentle reader – know how I progress. (Did you like all those sub-clauses and extraneous punctuation? I did!) I’ve been hanging round a few gardening forums to pick up some tips about where to buy turf, what I need to do to make it work, how long it will take and all that. Apparently, I’ll have to do the turfing part of the operation in a single day – so I might tell my dad to forget about his dicey back and get down here to help out!
The only remaining question is whether to persist with the veg garden. Currently, this takes up the top helf of the garden on a raised level. We discussed making all of this bit into a veg patch – but that was before pregnancy curtailed my wife’s ability to weed/rake/sow and hoe. Currently we should be well into planting season and I ain’t done nish.
Ah well. I’ll think on and you’ll be the first to know when I’ve decided.
Frost ‘n’ Ice…
Assuming you’re in the UK, the last week has been hideously cold. Just a quick word to the wise: stay off your turf until the cold snap has finished. The icy air actually freezes the water that is held in the blades of grass. Although the cells expand with it to avoid damage, you can easily break the frozen blades by treading on them – and possibly even kill off individual grass plants.
Anyway, it’s an excuse to stay indoors!
