IT'S TIME TO MOW THE LAWN!

How do you know it's time to mow the lawn?

Easy! The moment you realize Kemecut and gang begin to leave their needle-like little flowers on your pants everytime you enter their area, or when you see that La La Ng @ Lalang & Co. starts to establish its sub-companies here and there, then it's time to get your lawn mower ready for action.

You have to decide on certain things before you get started. First, you might want to decide on the extent of cropping that you wish to do: minimum, medium or maximum? Minimum cropping would leave you with greener lawn, but necessitate re-mowing within a much shorter time period. If you mow the area 'bald',  then you will have a 'botak'-look lawn, but a longer rest before putting your mowing machine into action again. What you decide on can tell wether or not  potong rumput job really excites you!

Mowing, done in the morning, might save you from the ill-effects of the sun's UV rays. But your lawn mower might not function efficiently in chanelling the wet and sticky grass into the bucket that is attached to its back. If you run the machine without the bucket (that will also make the machine lighter to handle), you will end up spending more time raking together the cut grass afterwards.

If you decide on not using the bucket, you might want to avoid pushing and pulling your machine in hay-wire or haphazard directions. That would mean that you are 'scattering' the grass that you have cut! Think about the raking task after that which might leave you gasping for breath!

Always push your machine forward (and pull it backward) in a straight line, to ensure that the cut grass would gather in straight lines too. This would make the raking job easier.  You could make several small 'grass islands' or one large heap out of the stuff collected.

I do not treat the cut grass as waste. I normally use it to make my compost fertilizer (just google to get more information about it). I also use it to mulch my young plants, like what I've done to my papaya tree (pic. above).

Different people have different reasons for mowing their lawns. I do it because I just love the job, although I must also admit that there are certain places that I don't like to mow  -  the slopes, which demand more energy in handling the machine, and those areas around the trees which curtail my movement.

I like mowing my lawn also because this job is a real sweat (for a warga emas like me), that can really make me sweat (and hopefully, stay healthy!). I have been yearning to make my lawn nampak elok (although this doesn't seem to be materializing!).

Oh yes, there is another important reason that I should mention. By mowing the lawn on  a more regular basis, I hope to discourage local PATIs (Pendatang Tanpa Izin), such as those shown below, from encroaching into my private property.

To All Those Concerned, Happy mowing!