The growth of grass this autumn has been and continues to be very strong. I'm sure some of you lawn owners out there are wondering exactly when your grass will stop growing, allowing you to pack away those mowers and accompanying strimmers.

Well to be honest, our lawns usually continue to grow right through autumn and winter albeit slowly. In fact, if the ground conditions are correct you could actually take your mower out for a spin around your lawn before your Christmas dinner. Of course, the ground conditions must be dry, as mowing a lawn on wet or soggy soil will cause compaction which leads to poor grass growth and eventually moss.

It is the soggy soil in late autumn which is the reason that most people store their mowers away, deep inside garages amongst the ever-present piles of faded newspapers and half bags of cement. If you want an exact date to carry out a final mowing, I would suggest you mark the first week of November in your calendar.

It will benefit your lawn for the final mowing to raise the height of cut by 1cm above your summer mowing height; this gives you an ultimate mowing height of 3cm (1 Π inches). The reason why you raise the cut to this height is to allow for the slowing of grass growth and to provide some buffer growth against harsh frosts and snow.

Mower storage

The lowered temperatures of winter can cause the over-wintering petrol in your mowers carburettor and piping to solidify or gum up. When you go to use the mower in the spring, there will be poor petrol flow to your engine and it will not start.

Pulling the starter cord of a contrary lawnmower gets your heart rate going as good as most pieces of exercise equipment, but I find it a frustrating way to lose those post Christmas pounds. Of course, you can avoid all this by following a few simple steps to over-winter your mower. This is quite easy to do yourself, as long as you wear safety gloves and take precautions to avoid any injury to your hands.

The first thing to do is remove the petrol in the mowers fuel tank. You can do this by siphoning the contents into a can. Store this away from sources of ignition, possibly transfer it into the your cars fuel tank (petrol only of course). Start the lawn mower and run it until the remaining fuel is completely consumed and engine stops on its own.

Clean the undersides of the lawn mower using a plastic spatula to remove all grass and dirt attached to the blades and under-body. Follow this by scrubbing the underside with a plastic pot scrubber and water.

Dry the body and spray on a protective solution like WD-40 to the underside.

Finally, wheel the mower to its dry winter resting place to await the green grass of springtime. Until next week, happy gardening and remember that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.

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