Not a patch on Centre Court

The first lambs will be due any day now so regular checks of the barn need to be made to monitor progress and the appearance of any new arrivals. The weather has improved in a timely way which is encouraging. Meanwhile there are lots of jobs to be going on with in between times.

Sowing continues, both of vegetables and flowers, as well as potting on the early sown crops. Sweet peppers, chilli peppers and aubergines have now transitioned into 3" pots and the conservatory worktop is filling out. 

With some dryer weather, one job completed was scarifying the lawn. The new flower beds created last year enclose a rectangle of grass 40' x 12'. This was rather a rough patch of grass to begin with. The choice was to remove the grass, dig it over and sow a new lawn or indeed go to the expense of re-turfing it. Either way it would result in a rapid result or an instant result respectively. The second option was to gradually improve the lawn over several seasons. Being someone with lots of patience, I opted for the latter. 

The improvement process started last year. This involved hand weeding the newly defined lawn area, mainly of dandelions, which Janet largely undertook (also a person with lots of patience). The odd bare patch was re-seeded. Then during the summer, regularly mowing the lawn to stimulate the grass to tiller, that is to say, thicken up. The lawn was also fed with my homemade liquid fertiliser. In the autumn a dressing of bone meal to promote root growth was applied.

Now we are commencing the second season of improvement the initial task was to scarify the lawn. This involves using a spring-tined rake to scratch out the accumulated thatch of moss and dead grass at the base of the lawn. It also, to a degree, breaks up the top layer of soil. An incredible  amount of thatch  was removed in this way. Its actually quite hard work raking a lawn by hand. There are machines you can buy or hire to take the effort out of it if you lack a masochistic streak.

The effect of scarifying is to open up the lawn to allow water and air in to encourage healthy growth. The next job is to apply compost and brush it into any dips and hollows to try and level out the lawn a bit more. Then on to the regular routine of mowing and feeding, and not being caught unawares by weeds taking any liberties.

Three full wheelbarrow loads of thatch 
were removed. A nice addition to the
compost heap. You can see our Golden
Retriever, Spice, lying on the lawn
watching me work. She did not move
once so I had to rake around her and
finish that patch later when she eventually
decided to move. It looked like
a forensic scene of crime.