Grass cutting blues

A sunny day in Shropshire and, despite last night’s frost, I’ve just been out in the garden cutting the grass. Something which I really didn’t want to be doing in February.

In the far off days when I worked for a local authority and had responsibility for sports turf of all kinds, one thing we tried to avoid doing at any cost, was starting the grass cutting season too early. Cutting grass for the first time in the year seems to stimulate it into even more growth for a while, as if it is trying to make up for the growth you’ve just cut off.

Grass needs a temperature below 5c in order to stop growing and it needs a winter average of night time temperatures well below that for it to fall into a state of dormancy. Last year there were far too many nights when the temperature was well above that in October and November – some nights almost double that cut off point – and too many in  December too. And it was very wet as well.

Another condition which will drive grass into dormancy is drought – hence the lack of growth during the summer of 1976 – though the brown lawns a lot of people were faced with then all recovered when the rain returned. Though last September and October included a lot of dry days, November and December included a lot which were very wet as well as too warm. Hence me having to be out cutting my grass this morning.

In the garden, if the soil in that garden is inclined towards being acid, look out for Fothergilla major, which has very striking, scented, petal-less creamy white flower heads made up solely of stamens, which are carried in spring on a multi-stemmed medium-sized shrub. The oval, 4 inch long glossy dark green leaves turn scarlet and orange in autumn.