The ride on mower

Thursday 18th
Weather: Around 16. Broken clouds - some spot of sunshine.

I drove the ride on mower today and learnt just that in order to manoeuvre a trailer you have to think in reverse of how you manuoeuvre a car. Otherwise it's quite straightforward. On the left there is a lever that I have to pull out before I can turn the ignition on and then to press back in as soon as I have got the engine going. When I turn the ignition on I have to wait for the screen in the middle to clear first before it's ready. The 'speed' lever with the rabbit and the tortoise markings is pretty comprehensive.

The forward and backward pedal is all in one and is situated on the right. There is also a break pedal at the top too. 

We finished cutting the last of the meadows today. It's great that as another area gets cut back you step into a new perspective and see the garden from a different side.

Then towards the end of the day we propagated some Rhodendron by layering it. We made a small hole around the stem that we wanted to bury, and tried two variations - one was to tie the end around a stake and angle it somehow so that it keeps the stem in the ground, but for the string to remain above the soil surface and we cover the stem over with earth. The other was to tie the string to the stake and stem in such a way that when you thrust it into the ground it buries the stem underneath the soil. The only reason that you wouldn't do the latter is if the string rots as it's underground, but we used tarred twine, so hopefully it will last until it roots.