We have a half acre lot. Besides the house, there is prairie and grass. A friend told us that genuine prairie needs to grow on a larger piece of land if it is to bloom and grow enough to thicken and resist lawn grass. But ours seems to be holding its own pretty well. When we first started, we burned the plants as Nature did but it was troublesome so now we have a mowing team cut all the prairie plants each spring and take away their cutting as well as the accumulated last season's mowing clippings. I pile the clippings in our woods in back.
This spring, our community again aimed at waiting until June for the first grass cutting, "no-mow May". It is almost June and we got our riding mower back from its annual tune-up so I cut the lawn yesterday. We have many dandelions growing in our lawn but we strongly limit the use of weedkillers. I was impressed at how many of the stems survived the first cutting yesterday.
Our mower is old and we may have to buy a new one. We do have an excellent repair and tune-up company that services our machine. The mower moves fast and accurately. I wear hearing protection and goggles while cutting. The mower has a grass-catching system but it needs clearing often during a cutting. The collection tube and baskets get jammed easily, especially when the grass is thick, long and a bit damp as it was yesterday.
