The last two or three years I have grown lawn areas for ease of maintenance and to collect rich biomass for feeding biology and making compost. Regularly harvesting grass results in a loss of broad leaf diversity, so this year is a no mow season, which means I only cut one or two amenity lawns and access paths , the rest is left to make hay and regenerate. It looks a bit messy and is so tempting to give a little trim, but not before mid June . One interesting thing to try , which isn't always successful, still worth a go, is to sow a cover crop into the grass /hay just a couple of days before scything or strumming. It depends on the weather and being able to spread the hay on top evenly as it dries, so it becomes a mulch.

Everything is under control at the moment and I seem to be ahead of most things, apart from a bit of weeding in the polytunnel. So I'm beginning to think about starting something new, with May four weeks away I could slip in another project, although if I do that everything else may get neglected. Common sense says concentrate on keeping things manageable and enthusiasm says try to do more. Experience is telling me often doing less achieves more , and stop chasing my tail.

Hardiness zone is used as a broad perennial survival clue. Hardiness zone do not replace microclimate, frost dates, soil warmth, wind, or observed seasonal pattern.

https://youtu.be/cT6O-4zbP6E I thought this interesting enough to share. This is in Vermont Zone 4 - 5

This morning I'm thining and trimming side branches in a eight year old wood to make spring woodchips(BRF) the leaves are just starting and these small branches are full of growth hormones, perfect for fresh mulch material. It's nice steady work cutting , feeding the chipper then wheelbarrowing the chips to a newer tree row for mulching, this example of stacking tasks is productive, maintains the woods and makes about 180l of chips an hour. Also the chips produced are whole not flakes, they last longer and are from mixed woodland , therefore contain a diverse set of minerals /trace elements and support different groups of biology.