musings of a novice

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I’ve inherited a fairly large mature garden after moving house last year, and this is where my interest for gardening has blossomed (no pun intended, honest!) I live in an area which has very heavy clay soil and so it follows that the lawns contain a large proportion of moss, which is no 1 on my list of things to sort out. My dear father-in-law bought me an electric scarifier that I’ve used with good effect, but it has left me with very brown patches and some bare areas. On the lawn. Not on me. I was therefore understandably reluctant to reduce my largest lawn to the state of the front one (see attached pictures) as it’s what we look out onto from the living room, and before anyone tells me it has to get worse before it gets better, I know that but when partner (aka 5 year old boy) is throwing hissy fits about the state of the back garden with the very visible dog run and kennel out of kitchen window where once green lawn was, 7 compost bags full of taters, hanging basket of tiny toms and rather too many gardeners delights (I did get slightly carried away when sowing seeds) plus plant swap with a friend in which I definitely came off best, then I’m not so quick or stupid to mess up the one he likes best! Or am I???

After walking round with above mentioned friend the other day (you know who you are), she spoke so persuasively about the merits of weed n feed that I felt compelled to give it a go. I weighed up the pros and cons before buying a product. Pros – quick to apply, not much effort involved (excellent plan as I am not built for frenetic exercise despite what Titchmarsh says about lawn rakes being good for your abdominal muscles) and fairly speedy results (allegedly visible in 7 days). Cons – cost (being gadget fixated I can’t be relied on to spread it evenly by hand, therefore MUST purchase a spreader), black bits where the moss and weeds die off, partner’s scepticism re feeding weeds as well as grass, partner’s wrath if he ever should find out how much the whole escapade cost. As you may now gather, 3 days after application of said weed n feed I now can’t decide which is worse, bare and brown or black and patchy. Anyone got net curtains handy?

• 9 May, 2010
• 6 likes

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