Over the past two days we have cut most of the long grass. The Systems Administrator pushed the power scythe, while I raked the cut grass into piles. It helps to keep raking the cut grass clear while someone mows, otherwise the machine can slide over the fallen stems instead of making the next cut, and as they are swept out of the way you can see the tufty bits the first pass didn't get, that need going over a second time. We've lifted the cut grass into the trailer and the SA has hauled it off to the bonfire site where it now sits, a great ominous damp heap that we have to burn somehow, and the SA has given most areas a final cut with the lawn tractor.
We let the grass grow long in the middle of the bottom lawn, the daffodil lawn, and the meadow. The bottom lawn is studded in spring with Crocus tommasinianus which do quite well though there are not nearly enough yet, Fritillaria meleagris which tend to be vaguely disappointing and I always wonder whether it is too dry for them, or if the pheasants eat them, and cowslips. The cowslips in the grass don't do nearly so well as the ones in the beds, making me think the grass is too rank and competitive for them. I have more crocus and fritillary bulbs to plant now that the ground is clear, and after my failed attempts to establish yellow rattle from seed (fresh seed too, begged from my former employer) I shall investigate plug plants next spring, if I get round to it in time, and try throwing money at the problem. The grass is too coarse for many flowers to flourish, and a good dose of parasitic weed would help matters, if I could only get the rattle going. I added oxeye daisies to the mix last year, grown from seed that came free with a magazine, but it remains to be seen how that will do. It's funny stuff, oxeye daisy. You can put it in and have loads, or it can suddenly disappear, maybe to reappear later.
There is a huge and majestic ant heap on the bottom lawn. It has been there for years, getting gradually larger, and we mow around it. I don't know how this particular hill has survived, when generally the green woodpeckers take ant colonies out at some point during the winter. If I were a tidy gardener I would have got rid of it before it ever grew so large, but I don't mind it there. Ants are wildlife too, after all. On the top lawn between the rose beds I would draw the line, but it isn't doing any harm down at the bottom of the garden. I live in hope that eventually a visitor will turn out to be an expert on ants, and be able to tell me what sort they are.
The daffodil lawn has daffodils planted in it, as you would expect from the name (no, not strictly true, You would expect daffodils to have featured at some stage in the garden's evolution, but not necessarily to still be there now). There are a few crocus, and I'm undecided on whether to introduce more or to save them for the bottom lawn and avoid mingling my effects. The space is too tight for the lawn tractor to turn, and as the lawn ends in a steep four foot bank it wouldn't be a good place to be messing around on a tractor anyway, so I'll have to go over the grass to neaten it up with shears and the rake. This is a slow task, but infinitely worse if left until a panic in February when the leaves of the daffodils start to come through. The whole of the sloping sides have to be cut by hand as well, which is a long job. I suppose we could buy a small fly-mo and try the fly-mo on a rope swinging technique, but I don't fancy it. I have in the past had some success with an electric hedge trimmer, so maybe I should dust that down and try again, to speed things along. I don't particularly enjoy using power tools in the garden. They are so noisy, and there's less chance of spotting stray creatures in time to avoid slicing them horribly into bits.
I tried daffodils in the meadow, but the sand seems to have been too much for them, or rather too meagre, and there wasn't much of a display last year. The meadow is fairly straightforward to cut, but quite large. Well, objectively speaking it is not large, but it feels big enough when you are going over it with a plastic lawn rake. Field scabious grows fairly happily in the grass, and the SA rescued a handful of flowers to go in a vase rather than slice them up with the scythe.
I have said it before but I will say it again, never, ever rest the handle of a lawn rake between forefinger and thumb of whichever hand you have holding the handle half way down. You will remove a large disc of skin from the soft flap between your thumb and your finger in a remarkably short time, and it will hurt a lot. Grasp the handle against your palm. Palms are leathery and designed to withstand friction. So long as you can avoid accidentally removing useful sections of skin, raking is splendid exercise.
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