Spring is Here!

I managed to clear my garage sufficiently to access the lawnmower that had been lying dormant underneath one the workbenches (that has in fact developed into a shelf on which to store stuff). I also unearthed the 5 litre petrol can, which was nearly empty. As the mower had no fuel in it I went to the petrol station and filled the car and the can with fresh fuel. (As we are restricted by Covid the car hasn’t been far this year and not much fuel has been used.)
I have had issues in the past with trying to start the mower using ‘old’ fuel. I am told that petrol theses days has a proportion of bio-fuel and this tends to make it watery if left. The subsequent mixture is difficult to ignite. So filling the tank on the mower with fresh fuel was, I thought, a good thing to do.

Several pulls on the starter chord later, I realsied the thing wasn’t going to fire up first time! Typical! But after leaving it for a short while and messing with the carburettor damper once or twice it finally burst into life!

Success

We have a reasonable amount of grass to mow. I call it grass but it is in fact more like green stuff that grows with a lot of moss and weeds. That is OK, because it does look OK from a distance and the bees, wasps, moths and other bugs like the nectar they can get from the wild flowers and other stuff that grows in it. (Mainly clover, I might admit)

Being the first cut of the season I started with the blades a little high in the hope that by running over the green stuff it would neaten it up and also pick up all the leaves and twigs that had been deposited over the winter. The first bags of ‘cuttings’ were mainly leaves with a bit of green stuff, so i put that on the leaf pile, ready to rot down to leaf mould by next spring. Last year’s leaf pile appears to have rotted down nicely. I must find time to bag that up and store for use later. The rest of the lawn (?) has now been mowed and the cuttings deposited in another pile for composting. I had removed last years compost earlier in Spring and spread over the borders as a mulch.

We have a steep bank in the garden that I tend to go a bit wild. It blossoms with Forget-me-Nots, Cow parsley and Ox Eye Daisies though the summer so I only mow a portion of it to allow the flora to develop. This time was no exception.

The garden is now looking neater and tidyer. Some leaves are still on the ground, but they will get picked up eventually. It is good to hav some ‘brown stuff’ mixed in with the compost. The mower had its first test of 2021, and passed. Hopefully I will not be spending more time mending it in the Summer than I do mowing with it. It is always satisfying to have tools that work when you want them!