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| Treated law, April 2014 |
Mowing the lawn regularly stimulates new growth from the base and it's been cut several times already this year. As the weather is warming, the grass is getting a spurt on. The grass gets finer and thicker with cutting - at least, that's the theory.
Actually, my lawn is getting smaller and smaller. If you look at early photos of my garden back in, say, 2010 when my garden was very young, you will see how the lawn has shrunk. Each year I seem to chip a bit more away, widening my borders so that I can grow more plants. I have never had enough energy to do it all at once. It's nice to have a big lawn but I love flowering plants too and the problem with my lawn is that only a couple of inches under the soil there is rock. I think at some point in the past a dry-stone wall has been knocked down and a thin layer of topsoil spread over the top. I promise you, there is nowhere in my garden where I can easily dig down and plant anything without hitting rock. It's murder!
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| Lawn in June 2010 |
The lawn always looks wonderful when I've just edged it, but it's hard work. Some of you will know I have a permanent balance problem so anything that requires a lot of bending, looking down, or even looking up, is not easy. I do it in small bursts of a few minutes and rest in between but little by little I get there. It's just a case of perseverance, not giving in, and hoping for a soft landing when gravity gets the better of me.
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| Trimming lawn borders, April 2014 |
I've recently bought about thirty new plants, a mixture of hardy perennials. I'm having to plant them little by little but I'll get there, hopefully while the weather still permits. I think I need to just stick them in the ground where I think they might have a chance and then, if it's a mistake, just move them later on. That seems the easiest way for me to get it over and done with. Already the garden is starting to look pretty good. It'll be time for hanging baskets very soon.