Are your neighbourhood lawns looking Mown? What about the grass virges on your Road?

[95438756]

I'm sure they're all fine and there's no need to check so you won't receive any Booby Prizes
My back garden is completely weedgrown. but the front garden was movn this Thursday 27th gone!
What do other lawn mower operators have to say for themselves?

[Jack The Stripper]

Lawn edger best gadget to keep lawn edge smart.

[678904673]

Front and back cut a few weeks ago but in need of a trim again. The next door neighbour retired a few years back and spends a lot of thine in the garden. It's pristine. The fecker is putting the rest of us in the estate to shame

[CelticRambler]

Took a break from electrical work to whizz around on the mower this afternoon. Couldn't believe how much needed to be taken off, seeing as I gave it a good scalp on Wednesday. Definitely into twice-a-week territory now. Mind you, if you ignore the patches of dandelions and the decapitated molehills, it's almost looking like a proper lawn at the moment.

Will try to keep it in good order now as the parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks.

[isha]

Didn't you ever hear of No Mow May? The wild flowers are coming up strong in the grass right now. It's a great year for them. I will wait a while before strimming and then just cut back places I actually use or where there is an aesthetic imperative for the grass to be short, and leave the rest to the creatures.

Save the planet, lads.

[CelticRambler]

"No Mow May" ... ?

Nope, never heard of it.

But considering that (a) my lawn area represents only about 6% of the property; and (b) the much vaunted biodiversity includes disease-bearing ticks that love high grass in the orchard (another 6%), well the purveyors of Three Word Slogans can feck right off.

Besides, there are plenty of wildflowers and other vegetation growing in the courtyard, in the lane, on the roof ...

[Apelles]

We stopped cutting most of our back garden some years back and have been letting it go wild, it looks awful atm. Last year heather grew over a lot of it which looked well, but all this extra pollen knocking around the place is having a somewhat negative side effect too as a few in our house suffer with hay fever, I'm nearly immune to antihistamines at this point. There's an area of wild garden close to the side of the house which I'm thinking to turn back into lawn again. There's weeds growing rampant all about this side, even in cracks between the curbing and the driveway, which are hard pulled out and I'm not into spraying dangerous weedkiller about the place.
My dad used to save the contents of ashtrays in buckets, add water and leave them to stew for a few weeks, after which he'd strain it and used the revolting liquid as a very effective weed killer. I don't think I'm gonna take up smoking again just to kill a few weeds.
Does anyone else have a recipe for a safe, effective, homemade weed killer?

[isha]

I've tried lots of things with weeds which insist on being in the wrong places. Salt mixes, wash up liquid mixes, baking soda, I once bought a burning weeds gun from Lidl but I felt like such a complete murderer in the ten minutes I used it that I threw it away. In the end two things work, acceptance and where acceptance is not possible a small pickaxe tool that takes up far too much of my life.

[CelticRambler]

I once bought a burning weeds gun from Lidl but I felt like such a complete murderer in the ten minutes I used it that I threw it away.

I picked up one of those in their bargain basket too. It's great ... for lighting bonfires, heating stuck nuts-and-bolts, melting pipes, charring pieces of wood ... but does nothing to control weeds. In fact, I'm pretty sure it selectively enourages the growth of those weeds with the deepest, most heat-resistant root systems, making the problem worse than it was before. I think they may have some usefulness on gravelly type surfaces, where they can frazzle any seedlings that think they might make a go of it and the gravel is already acting as a sort of weed-limiting mulch; but where you've got good quality soil readily available, it's more than a heat-gun can handle.

One strategy worth considering is identifying and encouraging the growth of plants you can tolerate. In my courtyard - cobbled, but well fertilised with decades of chicken and pig manure - I let wild pansies run riot as their flat "plates" of leaves seem to make it difficult for any other plants to set seed and/or grow (other than docks, of course ) and a carpet of purple-and-white is almost as attractive as a weedfree cobbled surface.

[Apelles]

I've tried lots of things with weeds which insist on being in the wrong places. Salt mixes, wash up liquid mixes, baking soda, I once bought a burning weeds gun from Lidl but I felt like such a complete murderer in the ten minutes I used it that I threw it away. In the end two things work, acceptance and where acceptance is not possible a small pickaxe tool that takes up far too much of my life.

Found this homemade recipe which is based on using vinegar as the main ingredient, along with a combination of some of the other ones you suggested . . Yeah I think I'm going to try this out.
https://nativeplantherald.prairienurser ... ed-killer/

[CelticRambler]

When it comes to green spaces, ya can't bate a close shave! The biodiversity-free lawn chez Rambler (well, half of it - the rest is off to the left):



But here's where the creepies, crawlies, flutteries, flighties and things that go squarrrrrkkkkk in the night hang out:



Part of the garden is left semi-wild. I keep a path through the "woodland" intermittently mowed. Intermittently because I have more than enough grass to be emptying just doing the lawn area, and besides the grass doesn't grow as fast in these spaces. But also mowed because cutting a channel through the wilderness encourages diversity. There is a range of plants that appreciate the particular combination of sun and shade, damp and dry, that you find at the edge of a thicket, so an occasional pass with the mower actually improves their lot.

[95438756]

What's wrong with the rest of yez. well, a Measily thanks from me for the pics.

[95438756]

We stopped cutting most of our back garden some years back and have been letting it go wild, it looks awful atm. Last year heather grew over a lot of it which looked well, but all this extra pollen knocking around the place is having a somewhat negative side effect too as a few in our house suffer with hay fever, I'm nearly immune to antihistamines at this point. There's an area of wild garden close to the side of the house which I'm thinking to turn back into lawn again. There's weeds growing rampant all about this side, even in cracks between the curbing and the driveway, which are hard pulled out and I'm not into spraying dangerous weedkiller about the place.
My dad used to save the contents of ashtrays in buckets, add water and leave them to stew for a few weeks, after which he'd strain it and used the revolting liquid as a very effective weed killer. I don't think I'm gonna take up smoking again just to kill a few weeds.
Does anyone else have a recipe for a safe, effective, homemade weed killer?

My back garden looks worse. Also, infested with Brambles.

[marhay70]

Found this homemade recipe which is based on using vinegar as the main ingredient, along with a combination of some of the other ones you suggested . . Yeah I think I'm going to try this out.
https://nativeplantherald.prairienurser ... ed-killer/

Easy on the salt though, you could end up doing more harm than good if salt leaches into the surrounding soil.

[Apelles]

Easy on the salt though, you could end up doing more harm than good if salt leaches into the surrounding soil.

I might leave out the salt altogether where I'm going to be spraying the garden directly. It does make me question whether salt in itself might work better in the more awkward areas where the weeds like to grow, like between the curbing and driveway or the cracks in the path around the house?

[CelticRambler]

When it comes to weeds growing in cracks, it's the cracks themselves that are the problem. You'd be far better off filling them with something cementy to bring them level with the adjacent surface so that there's no longer anywhere for soil (or soil-like substrate) to collect.

[Apelles]

When it comes to weeds growing in cracks, it's the cracks themselves that are the problem. You'd be far better off filling them with something cementy to bring them level with the adjacent surface so that there's no longer anywhere for soil (or soil-like substrate) to collect.

I've tried that with all sorts of cementitious concoctions. It works for a while then eventually comes away again, i think it's especially due to when it comes to power hosing those areas.

[95438756]

RESOLVA liquid weedkiller weedspray is the only answer for those nasties growing in cracks and revices.
And unfortunately the weeds return eventually.

[marhay70]

I've tried that with all sorts of cementitious concoctions. It works for a while then eventually comes away again, i think it's especially due to when it comes to power hosing those areas.

Did you clean out the cracks to sound material? If you just fill the crack with the cement/filler mix, you may actually be burying the weed seeds in the nice damp warm environment they need to grow and you wouldn't believe the conditions the likes of dandelions will germinate in.

[95438756]

Edit,

I mean get this: Resolva spray.

[Berties_Horse]

Two applications per year (March & September), stifles moss growth and the dreaded taproot. Grass replenished, have tried everything over the years (even iron filings which scarred the lawn) and this is head & shoulders above the rest.

[CelticRambler]

The neighbour was out on his tractor yesterday (real tractor, not "lawn tractor") mowing the field I want to buy from him, along with all his other non-productive green spaces. It took him about six hours!

I might have left it a bit long to re-mow the orchard, as that took me nearly an hour, but the back garden had its third cut in eight days. This is the "other bit" that can't be seen in the photo above (the head's snapped off my strimmer, so the edges are looking a bit raggedy).




No cock-and-balls were uncovered during the excerise, other than my own ...

[isha]

I decided to strim the verges. Just the verges! And a couple of paths through long grass. It went like this inside my head - actual transcript...

At least the strimmer is working
Although it sounds a bit off
The fecken thing
I'll never be able to afford another
Oooh look at that lovely swathe of buttercups
Ah well cut them down there's plenty more
The daisies are amazing
Bellis perennis I love them
I'll just leave a little strip at the edges uncut
Really those docks look quite stately when they get tall
Oh well down they go
What a fantastic patch of forget me nots and herb Robert
I'm just going to leave them
They're gorgeous
That coltsfoot has really taken off in this area
And it's such an interesting plant
I'll leave that too
Those thistles are going to be magnificent when they bloom
I'll just leave a good few of themto see how they look
Is that eyebright?
My god, leave it
I'm leaving those nettles
They look great in that big bank
Comfrey is looking super
The brambles look great against the shed and really cover up the broken bike
What can I cut?
***looks around***
I feel like a plant murderer
That's enough for one day

[CelticRambler]

My strimmer lost its head a few weeks ago, snapped right off. I put it on the "must see if it can be fixed" list (low priority) and all the strimmable edges of the garden took advantage to grow at four time their usual rate.

The Elder Lemons invited themselves for a ten-day stay, and the Eldest Lemon decided that he was going to treat me to a new strimmer instead of wondering if I'd ever get around to fixing the broken one. Grand, sez I, but at the very least wait till Wednesday, because that's when the local hardware let me know if there's any good offer coming up at the weekend. Nope. the Eldest Lemon is obviously living every day as if it might be his last, so he went out and bought a new one for more than I would have spent; and the next day the hardware offered me 20% off everything in the store.

The strimmer is still in the box.

[95438756]

Well I can post here with a clean conscience that I mowed the front lawn and side strip last night

Give me a thanks below.