• The Lawn

    From Polly@golly@pwllgloyw@gmail.com to uk.rec.gardening on Thu Feb 19 16:32:15 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?
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  • From alan_m@junk@admac.myzen.co.uk to uk.rec.gardening on Thu Feb 19 17:00:39 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 19/02/2026 16:32, Polly@golly wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    SE Essex here. It's not so much the grass being wet more the soil is saturated. Just walking on the grass is turning it into a slight mud bath.

    In recent years my last cut of the lawn has been late November or early December and the first cut of the year possibly 4 to 6 weeks away.

    What I've found with both electric and petrol mowers, the first cut of long(ish) grass needs to be with the mower set at the highest level and
    with no grass collection box. Pick a dry windy day and let the cut grass
    dry out for at least half a day and go over again with the mower set at
    the same height but with the grass collection box.

    Unless you want a bowling green finish most people possibly cut their
    grass too short. There is also a school of thought that if you want to support pollinating insects leave early flowering weeds in the lawn
    alone and maybe don't cut until later in April
    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk
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  • From Jim Jackson@jj@franjam.org.uk to uk.rec.gardening on Thu Feb 19 17:03:36 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 2026-02-19, Polly@golly <pwllgloyw@gmail.com> wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    Does your mower have floats?
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  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.rec.gardening on Thu Feb 19 21:00:59 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

    On 19/02/2026 16:32, Polly@golly wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    SE Essex here. It's not so much the grass being wet more the soil is saturated. Just walking on the grass is turning it into a slight mud bath.

    In recent years my last cut of the lawn has been late November or early December and the first cut of the year possibly 4 to 6 weeks away.

    What I've found with both electric and petrol mowers, the first cut of long(ish) grass needs to be with the mower set at the highest level and
    with no grass collection box. Pick a dry windy day and let the cut grass
    dry out for at least half a day and go over again with the mower set at
    the same height but with the grass collection box.

    Unless you want a bowling green finish most people possibly cut their
    grass too short. There is also a school of thought that if you want to support pollinating insects leave early flowering weeds in the lawn
    alone and maybe don't cut until later in April

    It's even worse with coarse grass and an Allen Scythe. The wet cuttings rapidly and repeatedly clog the blade ...and nobody in their right mind
    tries to unclog an Allen Scythe blade without stoppping the whole
    machine each time.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Chris Green@cl@isbd.net to uk.rec.gardening on Fri Feb 20 07:08:57 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:
    alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

    On 19/02/2026 16:32, Polly@golly wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    SE Essex here. It's not so much the grass being wet more the soil is saturated. Just walking on the grass is turning it into a slight mud bath.

    In recent years my last cut of the lawn has been late November or early December and the first cut of the year possibly 4 to 6 weeks away.

    What I've found with both electric and petrol mowers, the first cut of long(ish) grass needs to be with the mower set at the highest level and with no grass collection box. Pick a dry windy day and let the cut grass dry out for at least half a day and go over again with the mower set at
    the same height but with the grass collection box.

    Unless you want a bowling green finish most people possibly cut their
    grass too short. There is also a school of thought that if you want to support pollinating insects leave early flowering weeds in the lawn
    alone and maybe don't cut until later in April

    It's even worse with coarse grass and an Allen Scythe. The wet cuttings rapidly and repeatedly clog the blade ...and nobody in their right mind tries to unclog an Allen Scythe blade without stoppping the whole
    machine each time.

    We have a large lawn round the house plus a further seven or eight
    acres of field for grazing and an orchard. It all needs mowing or at
    least topping occasionally.

    We have a Stiga 'out front' mower for the lawn and anywhere else we
    want to keep reasonably short. We never collect mown grass, we'd
    dissappear rapidly under a grass mountain. The Stiga (rotary, three
    blades) manages long and/or wet grass pretty well, but we definitely
    don't have a 'bowling green'. :-)

    I did have an Allen Scythe lookalike for a while but it never really
    lived up to the promise. For longer/tougher grass than the Stiga
    rotary can manage we have a Stiga flail mower (fits on the same
    machine, so it's an out-front flail moweer) which is excellent for
    mowing round the trees in the orchard. For the really big areas we
    have a tractor mounted flail mower.
    --
    Chris Green
    -+
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  • From alan_m@junk@admac.myzen.co.uk to uk.rec.gardening on Fri Feb 20 17:16:11 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 20/02/2026 07:08, Chris Green wrote:

    We never collect mown grass,

    Town living here, terraced house with lawn the width of the house but
    60ft long. I've found that if I don't pick up lawn clippings more often
    they stick to the soles of foot ware and get deposited on the carpets
    indoors. And no, I don't have a regime of removing shoes when entering
    the house nor, in decent weather, removing slippers when going outside.
    --
    mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk
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  • From liz@liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) to uk.rec.gardening on Fri Feb 20 19:08:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

    On 20/02/2026 07:08, Chris Green wrote:

    We never collect mown grass,

    Town living here, terraced house with lawn the width of the house but
    60ft long. I've found that if I don't pick up lawn clippings more often
    they stick to the soles of foot ware and get deposited on the carpets indoors. And no, I don't have a regime of removing shoes when entering
    the house nor, in decent weather, removing slippers when going outside.

    You can buy a metal scraper 'mat' that should remove the worst of it. I installed one in the doorway of the workshop after I found razor-sharp
    lathe swarf in the bed.
    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Chris Green@cl@isbd.net to uk.rec.gardening on Sat Feb 21 07:00:36 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    alan_m <junk@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
    On 20/02/2026 07:08, Chris Green wrote:

    We never collect mown grass,

    Town living here, terraced house with lawn the width of the house but
    60ft long. I've found that if I don't pick up lawn clippings more often they stick to the soles of foot ware and get deposited on the carpets indoors. And no, I don't have a regime of removing shoes when entering
    the house nor, in decent weather, removing slippers when going outside.

    Is that the only reason you pick it up? It's not much of a
    [uk.rec.]gardening reason! :-)

    We have a utility room and breakfast room where boots and grassy shoes
    live, we try not to wear outside shoes elsewhere in the house.
    --
    Chris Green
    -+
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  • From Polly@golly@pwllgloyw@gmail.com to uk.rec.gardening on Wed Feb 25 14:39:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 19/02/2026 16:32, Polly@golly wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    Thank you for all the responses/chats, did not see any direct advice. As yesterday was warm and the lawn eventually dried I gave it a high level
    mow in the afternoon, and as it is still dry-ish and warm today, I think everything will be OK.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Jeff Layman@Jeff@invalid.invalid to uk.rec.gardening on Wed Feb 25 16:10:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 19/02/2026 16:32, Polly@golly wrote:
    Despite the cold and very wet weather, my lawn looks in desperate need
    of a cut, BUT is it sensible at this cold time of year, even if it dries enough to mow it with my electric mower?

    Just completed a 50 mm cut. The grass above that height was more-or-less
    dry, but below it was still wet. The mower collection bag wasn't too
    heavy even when full, so I guess that shows how dry the grass was.
    --
    Jeff
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