How to care for your lawn:

There is story that goes around Oxford about some visiter from the USA who looked at the wonderful lawns in St Johns College here in Oxford and asked the grounds man how he got his lawns so fine.

The reply was: Well, cut it and roll for about 500 hundred years and they turn out looking like this.

Well, how do you get a great looking lawn?

There are four steps and they start right now.

Mow the lawn: Make sure that you set the blades high for the first few cuts, slowly lowing the blades gradually through March and April.

Scarify and Rake: Lawns can look tired this time of the year, so rejuvenate with a thorough raking, using a lawn rake. Doing so will help get rid of dead plant matter and moss. If you lawn has a lot of moss it is a good idea to treat it with some organic mosskiller and then rake out the moss when it has died. 

Weed and Feed: This is a very important step and best done at this time of the year. Spread lawn feed by hand unless you have a big lawn in which case  use a wheeled applicator.Spend some time removing dandelions.

Seed bare patches:You might have some worn ares on your lawn, well do not worry. Loosen the soil surface and sprinkling on grass seed and then spread some compost post on it. 

What I am doing on my plot:

Still repairing my raised beds. After six years they need a bit of maintenance.

Looking after the seedlings.

Planting more potatoes.

Cutting my grass.

What I am thinking about when digging:

A wall-eyed pike is put in a aquarium. He is fed for days with little minnows. Then in the middle of the experiment, a glass partition is placed down the middle of the aquarium so that the pike is now confined to one side.

Then the researches drop the minnows, on the other side of the glass. Straight away the pike goes for the minnows, but he hits himself against the glass. He circles and hits again. He tries for a third time, but now he is hitting the glass a little less hard..

After a few more times, he just sort of nosing up against the glass. He is feeling that he is not going to get those minnows. Petty soon, he just swims around in circles and ignores the minnows on the other side of the glass.

At this point those doing the experiment take out the glass. The minnows come right up against the gills of the pike and he does not even try to eat them.

Th experiment ends when the pike starves to death. He is sure that he is not going to get those minnows, so there is no point in wasting this time or hurting his nose. again.

To my mind that is the human story, people spiritually starving in the midst of plenty. We would rather have wars and droughts then learn how to eat.