• 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
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  • 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
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  • 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.
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  • 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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  • From Polly@golly@pwllgloyw@gmail.com to uk.rec.gardening on Sat May 3 19:14:24 2025
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    After applying moss killer/ lawn feed, I spent a hard hour raking the
    lawn this afternon, then mowing it! It suddenly occured to me would it
    have been better to mower before (and probaly afte) raking? Could have
    been easier on my old shoulders and back while raking!

    Another probably silly question on the lawn!

    My lawn is roughly square so I tend to cut it north/south one cut the east/west next time (if I remember what I did before!). This afternoon I decided to cut it diagonally anf was wondering if (apart from the mowing liness) does cutting in different directions make any difference to the
    lawn? I'm not talking about a smart/posh lawn, just a normal weedy/mossy
    house lawn.

    Thanks

    Roger T
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  • From Another John@lalaw44@hotmail.com to uk.rec.gardening on Sun May 4 11:18:06 2025
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 3 May 2025 at 19:14:24 BST, "pwllgloyw@gmail.com" <pwllgloyw@gmail.com> wrote:

    After applying moss killer/ lawn feed, I spent a hard hour raking the
    lawn this afternon, then mowing it! It suddenly occured to me would it
    have been better to mower before (and probaly afte) raking? Could have
    been easier on my old shoulders and back while raking!

    Myself, I cut it, then rake it (see below), then cut it _again_ (easy on the front lawn, which is tiny, not so easy on the back which is bigger - I may
    wait a day or so before the rake and second cut for that one).

    For raking you need a lawn raker!! I found one in a charity shops a few years ago for -u10 (I'd never seen one before (in my long life)). It has sprung tines on a roller, and is very light. I can whip over the entire lawn (**get it on the right height!**) in a few minutes, with virtually no effort. Google for them; don't go mad on any "luxury model": I only use mine 2 or 3 times a year (beginning and end of the season). [See Footnote]

    Another probably silly question on the lawn!
    ....does cutting in different directions make any difference to the lawn?

    Personally, I'm sure it does: my lawn is like yours ("just a normal
    weedy/mossy house lawn"); some of the grass plants lie flat, so changing the direction for cutting (after raking) catches the buggers out.

    What's your mower? A motor rotary, with a sharp metal blade? A motor rotary with two little plastic "blade-lets"? Or a cylinder mower? I've actually got all three, I like the cylinder best: it's quiet, and cuts the grass properly (i.e. doesn't just slash it violently), but I have to push it, and so rarely use it.
    I long for the cylinder mower my Dad had: it was a pusher (of course), but it had a good sharp cylinder, and a heavy roller which was split in two, so
    turned very easily at the end of the strip. (I used it an awful lot, once my Dad decided I was big enough to cut the grass.)

    John

    Fottnote: I once bought a "Scarifier or raker" from Aldi. It weighed a lot,
    and it was really savage; it had interchangeable rollers: one for "scarifying" one for "raking", but I found that even the raker ripped up the lawn too deep for my liking. At the time I was doing the gardening for a chap who was converting a field ito a flower garden: the Aldi beast was OK for that, but still too voilent for me: certainly not suitable for our own garden. When I stopped that gardening job I left the beast there.
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  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to uk.rec.gardening on Fri Feb 20 11:17:00 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?
    Sure. grass is hard to kill
    --
    "Corbyn talks about equality, justice, opportunity, health care, peace, community, compassion, investment, security, housing...."
    "What kind of person is not interested in those things?"

    "Jeremy Corbyn?"


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  • From The Natural Philosopher@tnp@invalid.invalid to uk.rec.gardening on Fri Feb 20 11:17:36 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.rec.gardening

    On 19/02/2026 17:00, alan_m wrote:
    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.

    +1
    --
    Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!



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