Sowing the seed (19th Aug 2012)

Over the past few days I have spent countless hours raking the meadow free of all the Balsam and Nettles.  This was mainly done by yours truly as 1) dearest husband has a 'real' job to go to; in which money and the capacity to adequately care for our family is the main motivating factor and 2) it is still the childrens' school holidays and we are happy to spend hours messing about in a field for amusement.  Which, out of interest, is how I optimistically and rather naively envisaged the task!

After the first few hours, I was covered in a rather unladylike amount of perspiration, struggling to straighten my spine, and well on the way to developing larger bicep muscles than some males.  Why did I find such a simple task as raking so hard? oh yes-probably because I have never attempted gardening to this scale, plus, the ground is covered in hillocks and tussocks of weeds and mounds of uneven stature a plenty! Consequently, the next few hours turned into quite a few days work.  I began each session enthusiastic and keen to make a difference to the project, however, when the time became necessary for a break, I would look up to find that I had hardly covered any ground at all.  Slight dismay and feelings of negativity began to creep in; namely that the whole task was insurmountable and that one female could not readily make a difference to what had taken mother nature years to create.  Naturally, I began to question my own sanity whilst feebly uttering desperate statements such as "I can't do this anymore!, surely there has to be an easier way?, can we not just rent a goat?"

Both husband and I are eager to plant the grass-seed to give it time to grow before the weather turns too cold.  We hope that planting some rigorous growing grass will possibly inhibit some of the weed growth or allow us to manage the rate of growth by regular strimming/cutting whilst also provide stability and nourishment for the soil over winter.  Having (extensively-ha!) read up about green manures and pasture grass we decided upon a horse and pony mix that we will hopefully turn into a useful compost.

14kg bag of grass seed, to cover approx 1 acre, hmmm!

So, the meadow was finally weed free (ish) and the grass seed arrived.  First impressions-you definitely don't get much for your money and will this (small) bag be enough to cover an acre?

We set to work sowing the seed.  Again, with our reading on the subject this was done using exact scientific methodology.  Ok, we liberally sprinkled handfuls of seed over the entire meadow; optimistically including the as yet shaded areas under the trees.

This done we left for a well earned family holiday in the lake district.  We will all subconsciously pray for rain and send positive growing vibes to our little seeds and when we return to the land next week we shall be greeted a lush, green pasture; oh yes-the power of positive thinking and optimism is the key!