LAWN - FIRST CUT OF THE YEAR

I cut my small back garden lawn this morning; first cut of the year.  There are bright green patches of moss which will be dealt with in a week or two.  I popped down to the garden centre and bought a box of Evergreen's Complete 4 in 1.  Although some think it too harsh, it does the job I want it to do.  It gets rid of weeds and moss, feeds and strengthens the lawn  You have to be careful not to go mad with it though (apply too much) because, if you do, it will burn and blacken it along with destroying the weeds.  I want my lawn to look as good as it did when at its best last year and in years before that, like my lawn looked in 2011. 

Lawn 2014

I also pruned the Arthur Bell floribunda roses and sprayed them with a systemic rose fungicide by Bayer.  I was so disappointed last year to find they were full of black spot.  Arthur Bell has been such a fantastic rose, so strong and healthy for several years but now they seem weak and unhappy.  I'm giving them another chance but if they don't look to be doing well later this spring, out they come.  Such a shame.  I think that the problem I am having with my roses, the mildew, the diseases, is down to the very good air we have here, high up on the Pennine Mountains.  Decades ago, before laws were brought in to prevent air pollution by the burning of fossil fuels, roses did well because the chemicals in the smoky air killed off disease spores.  But not now.

I also went around my garden borders with Tumbleweed.  I buy it in a spray bottle and just do the odd weed and patch of grass.  It's a lazy way of working, I know but it's surprising how, over winter, grass can get right into the borders. 



There are so many more jobs to do but little by little, I'll get there.  I was pleased to see that some of the fuchsias that I have overwintered in the mini greenhouse, still in their hanging baskets, have survived.  Some have not but the ones that have survived should make a good display this year.  If the trailing fuchsias look anything like they looked last year, I shall be really pleased.  Also the rosemary plant is looking well, the lemon balm is alive and smelling great, the chives are 6" tall already, and the flat-leafed parsley is on its third year! 

Swingtime and Southgate trailing fuchsias