Mowed 28 times so far this year. Uncle!

[6thgpSF]

every time I've mowed it's rained the next day...russ

 

[2LaneCruzer]

That was the "lawn" and sometimes it was mowed with a pull-type mower at maybe 4 inches and sometimes a bush hog type thing. Any green was good and it not much for fertilizer. Any "grass" was timothy or by accident. Maybe New Hampshire is more lawn civilized than the ultra rural part of Maine.

You should be able to grow peppers and onions there.

Start the peppers inside, hardy them up a few weeks, add a little fertilizer to start and more as the fruit sets. We grew boatloads of them. Same with onions in that they love fertilizer. We grew huge onions. Don't water the garden beyond the first few days.

For New England, I'm presuming you keep the weeds down in the garden, fall plow and plow in as much crop residue as you can. Spring plowing also good if you can settle the ground back down before planting. Lime the soil in the fall as well and you might need a soil test for that for PH.

I believe there are varieties of onions that do well in different latitudes, based on the amount of sun they get during the year. Check that out; you may be planting the wrong varieties. We had a great onion crop this year.

 

[Weedy Fields]

serious question OP, have you given any thought to mowing less?
Or do you enjoy mowing?
I cut the amount I mowed by 1/3 many years ago.
If it wasn't for the fact that we are moving I'd cut the mowing in half again.
It takes me about 2 hrs to mow my place.
Time I can better spend on other things.

I'm always bewildered by guys who buy 5 acres in the country and mow every inch.
The only time you see them on the lawn is when they are mowing it.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP , mow at 3 1/2" -- 3 3/4" and mow when it looks scraggly or maybe a few inches above cut height. The problem as I mentioned earlier was the volume of rain this year. It's been about double normal and has happened in a manner to seemingly cause the greatest amount of grass growth. I'm not a suburban mower by any means and mow when nature dictates. I mow with a 7 ft pull mower on around two acres.

Mowing is OK up to a point and after that, which we have passed this year, it becomes burdensome. That's where we are now because an inch of rain a couple days ago made another mowing a necessity for today. That's number 29 for the year and it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

[Weedy Fields]

OP, not sure if you caught the intent of my question. By mowing less I mean mow only 1 acre instead of 2 acres
Let the other acre go, plant it in trees or wild flowers or just let it go wild.
I let several areas on my yard revert back to mother nature.
Better for the wildlife, I use less resources, my mower will last longer and I spend less time on the mower (more time fishing!!) and its a win/win for everyone and everything that lives here.
You'll still be mowing the same number of times but the amount of time it takes will be less.

 

[sixdogs]

OP, not sure if you caught the intent of my question. By mowing less I mean mow only 1 acre instead of 2 acres
Let the other acre go, plant it in trees or wild flowers or just let it go wild.
I let several areas on my yard revert back to mother nature.
Better for the wildlife, I use less resources, my mower will last longer and I spend less time on the mower (more time fishing!!) and its a win/win for everyone and everything that lives here.
You'll still be mowing the same number of times but the amount of time it takes will be less.

Thanks. I understand now. Reverting to anything is not an option of the flat black farm ground around here. First, 100% of everything around here is either corn, soybeans or grass. There are very few native trees in the tens of thousands af flat acres around me. So the neighbors would likely egg and TP my house just because I was out of step.

Next is the weed issue. If you don't mow and keep weeds--of any kind--under control, those seeds will wind up in the fields and weeds are a problem in crops. So if you let an area go weedy, the township or irate neighbors would step in and assure compliance. I have seen that happen.

Finally, were I to let an area go more natural while surrounded by zillions of acres of grain for food, I would have a mouse explosion and be overrun with them. Find my earlier threads on trapping mice. One has to be on guard 24/7 to defeat those little %$#*@ critters.

It a nutshell, I can mow part of the yard one day and part the other but that's as close as I can get to not mowing. Rural New England was another story because no one cared that much plus the tall grass covered up the old washers and refrigerators dumped in the woods around the yard.

 

[Ken45101]

I did not mow as often earlier because it was too wet. But usually things slow way down in July and August and then it becomes every 2-3 weeks, often just to knock the week tops down. Not this year, 4-5 days after mowing , it needs it again I am seriously tempted to get an 8' finish mower, LOL. I have used the 15' batwing in the yard but the ground is too uneven for that machine.

My girlfriend and I are trying to keep up with both places plus reclaim several acres of pasture at her place that has been taken over by trees and saplings including the dreaded Russian Olive

The garden was put in late but the one success was zuchinni coming up from cast away fruits last year. Too many of them, of course. But the corn is tassling 3-4' high. We might get some tomatoes, maybe.

 

[mapper]

From the rainy NW (not), I have put about 10 minutes on the mower since late June, and that is just on a bit of lawn I re-seeded after a landscaping project this spring that I am watering to get it reestablished.
We are going on nearly 50 days without measurable rain, it's supposed to be 105 degrees tomorrow, way to hot for this NW weather wimp, the wife and I are heading out to the ocean for a few days. It supposed to be mid eighties there, really warm for the Washington coast, sounds good to me!
Garden is doing really well however, corn is coming up on eight feet tall, picking and freezing sugar snap peas, and the pole beans are starting to produce.

 

[kc5dlo]

I usually start getting a break from mowing by the first or second week of July. Then I can usually skip a week or two between mowing's till September. This year I have not skipped a week and the grass is still green and growing. Raining today and rain in the forcast for the next week.

Wonder what the winter is to be like?

 

[Gary Fowler]

Zucchini did great for a while but finally died off along with cucumbers. Tomatoes were loaded and producing great till some kind of wilt hit them and killed off all the leaves except the very tops. I tilled up the cucumbers and squash plants yesterday. Waiting for the watermelons to ripen so I can till up that area also.
Deer ate all my okra plants down. They tried to come back but not much luck due to the long dry spell. I tried watering for a couple times but didn't seem to be working so I guess I will just let nature take its course and then till it all up including the tomatoes.
Spring came early and first mowing was in February. Then it chilled up again and didn't have to mow again till last week in March but it has been every 4-5 days since then. The dry weather which normally comes around end of June finally set in mid July. Our soil can be muddy one day and bone dry the next so a couple weeks without rain and grass starts to wilt down. Part of my lawn has sprinkler system installed but majority of the 6 acres is naturally watered or not, so I mow my 1.5 acres that I keep watered about once a week now and the rest is down to about once every 2 weeks.

I would not consider letting any of it go back to nature the way is was when we bought the place about 10 years ago. Sweet gum and pine saplings will take over in about 2 years and weeds will kill out any grass which is what we had to begin with. That took 3-4 years to tame with bushhog, Roundup and backhoe to get a decent pasture grass growing and I wouldn't want it to go back as long as I am physically able to keep it down.