Gardening/Allotmenting

[briantrumpet]

Made a start on the French lawn... the grass is certainly much healthier after three years of proper mowing (before it had been with a scythe, Poldark style) and removing all the clippings so the soil can breathe. It's been an excellent year for things growing, with above-average rainfall interspersed with warmer spells.

As usual, the two batteries in the Lawnmaster beast did about 2/3 of this first cut before they gave up and needed recharging, so the rest will have to wait till another day, unless I get one charged in time to finish it off before some lessons tonight.

 

[briantrumpet]

Got it more or less finished with one battery recharge before the overnight rain, and I'm pleased to see that the bay shrub has sprung back into life despite looking decidedly peaky at Easter. I water copiously using all the waste water from the kitchen sink in the summer, but the rest of the year everything has to just get on with it: what survives survives, and the things that die obviously aren't trying hard enough, and get replaced with something more resilient.

 

[gzoom]

Really enjoying our amazing space in the garden this year. Last week we finally had the Corten steels fitted over the patio wall where the old render was falling apart. With the rain last night it's also staring to change colour already

I've also setup the 'spare' AVR and speakers (with sub) in the shed. Ive put enough wiring in to allow me to place the speakers any where within a 5-10 meter radius of the shed.

It's amazing how good even relatively cheap speaker sound in open space with room acoustics to worry about. I cannot see us moving from this house for a long long long time (if ever) .

 

[briantrumpet]

Grass now taken down a notch, and in the afternoon sun, it was a rather nice place to sit. I'm actually quite pleased to have got something that really does look like a lawn, given that a few years ago it was just matted meadow grass that that dried out in the summer. Most 'lawns' round these parts are like deserts in the summer, but thanks to being on soil that seems to retain water reasonably well (not too free-draining, despite the general limestone geology), and what I guess is hardy grass that is fairly drought-resistant, it's probably as good as I'm going to get.

 

[briantrumpet]

And that's the last mow before the end of July... happy with this.

 

[Speicher]

Made a start on the French lawn... the grass is certainly much healthier after three years of proper mowing (before it had been with a scythe, Poldark style) and removing all the clippings so the soil can breathe. It's been an excellent year for things growing, with above-average rainfall interspersed with warmer spells.

As usual, the two batteries in the Lawnmaster beast did about 2/3 of this first cut before they gave up and needed recharging, so the rest will have to wait till another day, unless I get one charged in time to finish it off before some lessons tonight.

View attachment 773756

View attachment 773757

Is your lawn mower self-propelling and what is the width of the cutting edge? Can you mow without leaving stripes. My back garden adjoins some enormous fields, and a bowling green lawn would look, in my opinion, look rather odd.

 

[briantrumpet]

Is your lawn mower self-propelling and what is the width of the cutting edge? Can you mow without leaving stripes. My back garden adjoins some enormous fields, and a bowling green lawn would look, in my opinion, look rather odd.

No self-propelling, but it's light, so it's not a problem. Guess 16" for cutting edge, and no, it doesn't really leave stripes.

 

[Speicher]

No self-propelling, but it's light, so it's not a problem. Guess 16" for cutting edge, and no, it doesn't really leave stripes.

Thank you for your reply.
My garden slopes slightly up hill at a guess 15%. So a self-propelling one would be ideal, but they are much more expensive. I do not want stripes because of the proximity to open fields. The edges of the lawn are all curves, so instead of stripes it would be wavy lines.

Lawnmaster sell a machine with a 46cm/18inch cutting width, but I assume this means it is heavier.

 

[briantrumpet]

Thank you for your reply.
My garden slopes slightly up hill at a guess 15%. So a self-propelling one would be ideal, but they are much more expensive. I do not want stripes because of the proximity to open fields. The edges of the lawn are all curves, so instead of stripes it would be wavy lines.

Lawnmaster sell a machine with a 46cm/18inch cutting width, but I assume this means it is heavier.

Guess so, but not massively so, as the only bigger things would be the body (mostly robust plastic) and the blade.

Just looked, and if it's this one, it's less than 3kg heavier, and double the power (runs on two batteries at 48V) than mine. And you get an extra two batteries into the bargain - mine was £250, that one £380. Looks like good value to me. Once I've done the first hackathon (lush grass about 3ft high), the motor is powerful enough, even on 24V, that it doesn't even register it's cutting the grass by slowing down at all.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LawnMaster...hargers/dp/B09RRX1XVV?crid=27A5CLQJX9A2C&th=1

I reckon if you can run it across the slope rather then up and down, it wouldn't be hard at all. TBH, the only lines you can see are straight away after, where the wheels have gone.

 

[Speicher]

Guess so, but not massively so, as the only bigger things would be the body (mostly robust plastic) and the blade.

Just looked, and if it's this one, it's less than 3kg heavier, and double the power (runs on two batteries at 48V) than mine. And you get an extra two batteries into the bargain - mine was £250, that one £380. Looks like good value to me. Once I've done the first hackathon (lush grass about 3ft high), the motor is powerful enough, even on 24V, that it doesn't even register it's cutting the grass by slowing down at all.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LawnMaster...hargers/dp/B09RRX1XVV?crid=27A5CLQJX9A2C&th=1

I reckon if you can run it across the slope rather then up and down, it wouldn't be hard at all. TBH, the only lines you can see are straight away after, where the wheels have gone.

Thank you for your detailed response. I had not thought about mowing across instead of up/down. The garden is about half as wide as it is long. The "back" garden is up a flight of steps.

The idea of two spare batteries is a good one. I am asking you all these questions because your garden adjoins fields, as mine does. Do you have the much longer grass for wildlife?

For the "First Hackathon" do you use a scythe? or your mower very slowly?

 

[Speicher]

On an entirely different subject, does anyone use the "Chelsea Chop" on their shrubs and/or perennials? I am thinking of Sedums. Verbena Bonsariensis and Shasta Daisies?

 

[BoldonLad]

And that's the last mow before the end of July... happy with this.

View attachment 774456

View attachment 774457

Just a thought, assuming you leave Electric Power on in your absence, would a "Robot" mower work for you, ie, it could just "get on with it" when you are not there, and, leave you more "free" time when you are there. 😂

 

[briantrumpet]

Just a thought, assuming you leave Electric Power on in your absence, would a "Robot" mower work for you, ie, it could just "get on with it" when you are not there, and, leave you more "free" time when you are there. 😂

No, all switched off, and anyway, in typical French fashion, my garden isn't actually attached to my house.

In any case, I like to let it go to seed etc, for the wildlife. I actually like the look of abandon, and then taming it.

 

[briantrumpet]

Thank you for your detailed response. I had not thought about mowing across instead of up/down. The garden is about half as wide as it is long. The "back" garden is up a flight of steps.

The idea of two spare batteries is a good one. I am asking you all these questions because your garden adjoins fields, as mine does. Do you have the much longer grass for wildlife?

For the "First Hackathon" do you use a scythe? or your mower very slowly?

That more expensive one you get four batteries and two chargers, so you can be recharging two while you mow, though in practice I'm pooped by the time I've done (my) two batteries' worth, and leave it till the next day. But (you) having four batteries charged up will mean you'll be mowing for well over 30 minutes.

You'd probably want to to the sides up and down a couple of runs, then go sideways., especially as you don't want stripes. I'd probably let gravity let it run down mowing, then pull it back up the same 'stripe', rather than trying to mow uphill... that'd be very hard work.

TBH, I CBA with the scythe now I've got this mower... the first hack I go forwards with the front lifted to about 30°, then reverse with it dropped down (with the mower on max height, which is probs about 3"). Does a surprisingly good job of cutting and not flattening, as you can see from my photos. I use the grass box to collect it all, as otherwise it would suffocate the soil. I get about 40m per boxful before it needs emptying. But as it's 5 months of growth, that's not bad.

 

[PeteXXX]