Improvising with broken tools
The lawn has had its first cut..Yay!
It was a dry and sunny morning so I had no excuse but to get
the mower out of storage and blow the dust off it. The small electric mower had
been slid under a table in the garage at the end of last summer to hibernate and
there it has sat until now.
With a bit of light oil lubrication on the steel blades and
240 volts plugging into the mains, it fired up straight away without
hesitation. Its times such as this I’m pleased I don’t have a petrol powered
mower as it would probably be needing a major service before I could use it.
The First Cut
It’s amazing just how much difference the first grass cut
can make to the look of a garden.
Grass doesn’t really stop growing in the winter; it just
slows down like most of us gardeners. So by the time the weather allows us on
the wetter parts of the garden, there are long patches and tufts all over the
place breaking up the uniformity of the lawn. The dogs’ doing their business
doesn’t help either. The first cut flattens everything into a uniform sward.
In just a short space of time I had this feeling of achievement
as I stood back to admire my work. It’ll probably be a weekly thing now until
the end of summer and I’m sure the novelty will soon wear off, but for now it’s
a joy to do.
Trim the Edges
The edges of the lawn needed a trim too and I find the
stimmer is a bit messy so opted for the long shafted hand shears, at least I
can cut the grass with these and not have to scramble about on my hands and
knees. These clippers, like the mower were unceremoniously thrown into a corner
last year, probably without oiling them first as they had developed quite a lot
of rust. A light scratch with some sandpaper, a rub with the sharpening stone
and a drop of oil and they too were ready to go.
I have a lot more tools to re-commission although I did
invest in a new sweeping brush as the old handle had rotted away beyond repair. For a while I improvised using the old
sweeping brush head cable tied to the end of a steel rake. It looked a bit odd but did the trick
although the steel spikes did drag across the concrete a little too often.
Water Butt
I set up the bird feeders near the shed and the only place
to put them safely away from cats was at the end of the drainpipes, just above
the water butts. This has turned out to be the wrong decision as the old seeds
and shells as well as deposits from fat balls and no doubt the birds themselves
have been dropping into the two butts and settling on the bottom. I didn’t
really pay much attention to this until I walked past them and smelt what can
only be described as old blocked drains mixed with rotting meat. The water had gone really cloudy too and I
think the appearance of the warmer sunny weather activated the rotting process.
I have drained the
water to about 6” from the bottom of the butts and then tipped them upside
down. The smell was horrendous as slime
slopped out onto the path I found it a bit yukky but the dogs did find it
interesting.
After a good hose and brush down of both the bins and the
path everything is clean and ready to go, a few rainy days will soon see the
butts full of clean water.
I’ll be feeding the birds less and less now too so hopefully
the situation won’t arise again for a while.
I’ve been using the water in the tunnel for the last few
weeks but as the weather warms, the humidity might cause things to get a bit
too smelly. To think I’ve been watering my seedlings with the water from those
butts for the last few weeks. Maybe they enjoyed the added “fortification” but
as very few seedlings are emerging, I think not.
