How is your mowing going?
I have just spent my precious free afternoon ‘mowing’ (in inverted commas because it is more like a massacre than actual mowing) - I didn’t even put the deck down because the grass was so long and thick and juicy it would have clogged the blade completely, as it is it did clog it momentarily several times, and I couldn’t do any cutting on the slope at all because too slippery in spite of 3 days of sun and wind… argh. Had I left it until Saturday I don’t think my trusty diesel Kubota (started first go!! In shed, untouched since August, good little mower) would have been up to it.
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I have been cutting grass for the last 5 weeks, it does not really stop here, 3 or 4 years ago we had mild weather at Xmas and my mate called me, what’s that noise he said, I’m cutting grass was my reply 
It’s to be 21C this weekend, weeds and grass will love it.
Blimey! That makes me feel better about all your photos of spring! Mower is still buried under big pile of winter dog towels and the like…
My yearning lust is for a robot mower…
Get agri/tractor pattern tyres fitted on the rear wheels. My little Stiga never loses traction, even on wet slopes.
Our 1½ hectares now had it’s first cut using our Kubota G1700. We have self mulching blades fitted to the deck and that has stopped clumps of wet grass forming making the first cut look amazing.
My mower is the same as yours Graham! They are excellent 
I am amazed it coped with the grass, mulched it all up and chucked it all out but there was SO much of it that from time to time it choked a bit - maybe I need sheep.
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It’s fairly old but a good solid machine unlike the more recent plastic lightweight ones. We have it serviced professionally every year which, whilst expensive, easily covers the cost of rubbish alternative replacements.
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While I still do the paddocks with the Alpina tractor I usually do the stuff around the farm with a 21" self propelled mover to keep myself fit, takes a day and a six mile walk, the orchard needs to be done this way as I would need to make a new entrance to it due to the stairs up to it.
I have a two acre paddock at the rear of the farm which I am slowly reclaiming with a wheeled strimmer and an old self-propelled mower which chomps through anything brambles included.
Since the droughts of the last two years we are having a problem with our orchard and garden being covered with red dead nettle.
It is also starting to cover our field and those of our neighbours.
Keep thinking about a rid-on mower but seeing as the grass only grows in the spring then late autumn here it’s not really worth it and it’s a good hours exercise for me, especially as the traction no longer works so I have to push the mower everywhere!
Have a look at the pitchcare website Jane, you can get a selective weedkiller for pasture land that kills nettles only.
Any herbicide that contains 2,4D Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or ask your local farmer as they will use it in bulk, I am sure it was developed in France.
Morning all
Never stops growing here in Normandy. Had our first cut in Feb.
I look on it as a spiritual exercise.
Andy
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If it is not farmed pasture then why bother? Seems a shame to add toxic chemicals to the soil for no good reason, and end up with bare soil rather than something…
We have areas that are distinctly not grass, but just mow them anyway. Even red nettles will grow close to the surface and as long as you don’t want to run around on it with bare feet it is soft and green. We need to adapt to the natural world, not force it to adapt to us.
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Ours are getting reclaimed for Donkeys so I don’t want nettles there, only had to use it once as we have ponds and rivers around.
It is farmed Jane, the field of a hectare is used for hay and then a couple of cows and their calves graze it before going into the barn for winter.
Yes, the farmer is going to do something to the field he rents from our neighbour.
We will have to go to either Gamme Chere or the farmers co-op nearer to Macon.
Jane you can get Depitox or Enforcer 5l from eBay France if you need it.
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Jim loves looking round these places though.
we would re-seed in the garden for the pool and the orchard.
Coo, all you people with grass! Couldn’t do with it here in the Languedoc, the water bill would be gigantic and it would still be seared for half the year!