Lawn mowing

[Dave2002]

Fortunately, the recent "dry spell" coincided with a full recovery in a back injury, so I was able to pull the mechanical starter cord without risk; the lawn hadn't been mowed since June.

I am the proud possessor of two petrol mowers, both ancient and equally decrepit, neither of which have ever been serviced. The preferred mower is a Flymo Lawnchief, which is so old, replacement parts are impossible to find, even on ebay. It has been patched up from time to time, but recently I broke the plastic throttle control lever. I was able to substitute a piece of Al strip with some Heath Robinson metal work, and a mechanical G clamp to hold the housing parts together.

Hopefully it will last another season or two. If not I will have to get to work on the second mower, which hasn't been used for 20 years!

Petrol mowers can be difficult to start if they've not been used for some time. Twenty years is rather more than "some" time. Sounds like a project. Good luck with that.

That reminds me though, that I should try to keep our petrol mower going - could be useful now for leaf pickup. However, it's probably too wet and cold to start at this time of year, so might have to wait until warmer weather next year - plus new petrol.

[gradus]

Dave, I thought you'd bought one of those robot mowers to take the bother out of it all?

[Dave2002]

Dave, I thought you'd bought one of those robot mowers to take the bother out of it all?

As I mentioned a day or two back - I sent my "agent" out in the rain to keep the lawn under control. Nice to see that some of the readers are still noticing things though. I've not had the petrol mower out for many months, since we wired up the lawn at the front. I spend hardly any time on mowing now.

[Pulcinella]

As I mentioned a day or two back - I sent my "agent" out in the rain to keep the lawn under control. Nice to see that some of the readers are still noticing things though. I've not had the petrol mower out for many months, since we wired up the lawn at the front. I spend hardly any time on mowing now.

Is GCHQ aware of all this agent activity?
Do you have any moles around?

[ardcarp]

[oddoneout]

Like these, perhaps...

OG

Many years ago a friend on the allotments asked me about a plant which had appeared and which she had been told was Cannabis, which had sent her into a panic. It was indeed cannabis, which I advised burying in her compost heap, and then spent some time trying to calm her down. The fact that several plotholders had known what it was and had been taking the mick about it didn't help... The conclusion as to what it was doing there was bird seed, possibly from a neighbouring plot where the people had hung up feeders for a while, until they realised the connection between their rat problem and feeding the birds. I don't know if it's still the case but it used to be possible to buy hemp seed from corn merchants - fishing bait I believe once boiled - and also some used it for racing pigeons, and budgie seed mix used to contain it. It was supposed to have been treated somehow to prevent germination. The classic - apocryphal - tale is of elderly ladies having cannabis plants growing under the front window where they'd emptied out Joey's seed bowl.
Back OT, I risked the mower on the grass, set very high to just even out the worst of the tufts. The mower coped and the grass is looking better, but despite cleaning it the mower is very damp, and the floppy grass container even more so; the next sunny dry day we have I'll need to get both out to reduce the fester factor during the winter lay-off.

[Old Grumpy]

Many years ago a friend on the allotments asked me about a plant which had appeared and which she had been told was Cannabis, which had sent her into a panic. It was indeed cannabis, which I advised burying in her compost heap, and then spent some time trying to calm her down. The fact that several plotholders had known what it was and had been taking the mick about it didn't help... The conclusion as to what it was doing there was bird seed, possibly from a neighbouring plot where the people had hung up feeders for a while, until they realised the connection between their rat problem and feeding the birds. I don't know if it's still the case but it used to be possible to buy hemp seed from corn merchants - fishing bait I believe once boiled - and also some used it for racing pigeons, and budgie seed mix used to contain it. It was supposed to have been treated somehow to prevent germination. The classic - apocryphal - tale is of elderly ladies having cannabis plants growing under the front window where they'd emptied out Joey's seed bowl.

I liked the story which accompanied the I newspaper's report on the Gardeners' World story - apparently some guy had a large area of cannabis plants in his back yard. When visited by the local constabulary and questioned about it he explained that the seeds must have been dropped by birds flying overhead. He was then asked to explain how the cannabis had come to be planted in rows and at regular intervals.

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

I liked the story which accompanied the I newspaper's report on the Gardener's World story - apparently some guy had a large area of cannabis plants in his back yard. When visited by the local constabulary and questioned about it he explained that the seeds must have been dropped by birds flying overhead. He was then asked to explain how the cannabis had come to be planted in rows and at regular intervals.

OG

Geometrical birds!

[doversoul1]

I liked the story which accompanied the I newspaper's report on the Gardener's World story - apparently some guy had a large area of cannabis plants in his back yard. When visited by the local constabulary and questioned about it he explained that the seeds must have been dropped by birds flying overhead. He was then asked to explain how the cannabis had come to be planted in rows and at regular intervals.

OG

Someone I indirectly knew (honest ) found himself in the same situation and gave the same answer (re: birds). He was lucky that the officer who questioned him was not gardener and did not examine the plants, as they still had seed plugs attached to them.

[oddoneout]

Geometrical birds!

Or gardener birds https://www.pitara.com/science-for-k...gardener-bird/

[Dave2002]

Maybe it is time to bring my agent back in from the cold. We went to Glyndebourne for a few days last week, and I sent my agent undercover - but decided to have one last burst before serious winter sets in and reactivated it on our return. However, I doubt that it's doing much for the lawn now - so I need to get the battery fully charged before turning into a hibernating sleeper for the next few months.

Has everyone else given up on mowing now?

We do have a vague plan which could be implemented shortly to turn the boundaries of the lawn into a wild patch with bulbs coming through. The bulbs will have to be planted soon, before it becomes impossible, and I'm not sure whether I need to rewire the whole area to avoid the possibility of the mower attacking the wild area when it comes out of hibernation, or just use physical barriers instead. I might do that rather than change the boundary wire. A decision might depend on how difficult the ground is to work.

[gurnemanz]

Has everyone else given up on mowing now?

I saw a neighbour mowing a couple of days ago. Pointless and possibly harmful this late, in my view.

I stuck to my plan, mentioned above, of only mowing once a month, not starting till May, so only mowed four times in total. I last mowed about six weeks ago and now have a pleasant green sward rather than anything even vaguely resembling a bowling green ... and less work, of course.

[Dave2002]

I saw a neighbour mowing a couple of days ago. Pointless and possibly harmful this late, in my view.

I stuck to my plan, mentioned above, of only mowing once a month, not starting till May, so only mowed four times in total. I last mowed about six weeks ago and now have a pleasant green sward rather than anything even vaguely resembling a bowling green ... and less work, of course.

My "agent" has kept the front lawn in reasonable state most of this year, and occasionally I move it to the back lawn. Very occasionally I use a spare electric mower to do some tidying up. However this denies me the "pleasure" of annoying the neighbours with a petrol mower, or giving me an excuse to spend almost all of my time outside, something which I note one of our neighbours seems determined to do almost every day. Also, I hardly ever have to take grass cuttings to the dump, or compost them, and the theory is that this is likely to enrich what grass there is in the lawn space. Dump visits are something else which seem to fascinate some others round here and give them relatively harmless "pleasure".

I think it is now time to consider putting the robot away for its winter season. In the meantime I think our petrol mower will rot away - as it's not been used seriously now for a couple of years. I might consider getting it serviced - but is there really much point?

Planning and action for next years wild patch should kick in almost immediately.

[oddoneout]

My "agent" has kept the front lawn in reasonable state most of this year, and occasionally I move it to the back lawn. Very occasionally I use a spare electric mower to do some tidying up. However this denies me the "pleasure" of annoying the neighbours with a petrol mower, or giving me an excuse to spend almost all of my time outside, something which I note one of our neighbours seems determined to do almost every day. Also, I hardly ever have to take grass cuttings to the dump, or compost them, and the theory is that this is likely to enrich what grass there is in the lawn space. Dump visits are something else which seem to fascinate some others round here and give them relatively harmless "pleasure".

I think it is now time to consider putting the robot away for its winter season. In the meantime I think our petrol mower will rot away - as it's not been used seriously now for a couple of years. I might consider getting it serviced - but is there really much point?

Planning and action for next years wild patch should kick in almost immediately.

Someone might be happy to take it "as is" - petrol mowers are useful on allotments and community garden type places but a big investment, but if there is a person with mechanical skills a tatty one may serve.
I had hoped to do a last tidy-up topping run last Monday - the grass had dried out over the weekend and the day was set fair. Unfortunately, out of nowhere and entirely unexpected by everyone, at about 10 am a sudden slight drizzle rapidly became a real downpour which even though quite short put paid to mowing. Since then there hasn't been enough dry to tackle it so I fear it will have to be left rufty-tufty over the winter, not something I like doing as it makes for problems next year.

[Serial_Apologist]

My "agent" has kept the front lawn in reasonable state most of this year, and occasionally I move it to the back lawn. Very occasionally I use a spare electric mower to do some tidying up. However this denies me the "pleasure" of annoying the neighbours with a petrol mower, or giving me an excuse to spend almost all of my time outside, something which I note one of our neighbours seems determined to do almost every day. Also, I hardly ever have to take grass cuttings to the dump, or compost them, and the theory is that this is likely to enrich what grass there is in the lawn space. Dump visits are something else which seem to fascinate some others round here and give them relatively harmless "pleasure".

I think it is now time to consider putting the robot away for its winter season. In the meantime I think our petrol mower will rot away - as it's not been used seriously now for a couple of years. I might consider getting it serviced - but is there really much point?

Planning and action for next years wild patch should kick in almost immediately.

We decided a couple of years ago to have the communal gardener cut our lawn with less frequency than previously, following a spike in the gardening part of the block management invoice. This year he reduced the number of cuts further, allowing weeds to infestate in greater numbers in line with encouraging creepy-crawlies, and, because the better of his two rotaries was out of commission, he resorted to the hoodless one, leaving lumps of cut grass strewn all about the place, which he said he lacked the necessary time to rake up. He, too, used the argument that leaving the cuttings would aid fertility; I didn't disabuse him although I thought the idea was to help minimise drying out during hot weather - no one has complained at the unsightly resulting effect, so I have said nothing further.