Taming the terraces

Oof, three down umpteen terraces to go. How many are there on the lower terraces? Sweet of you to ask but I have no idea. Well I do; but I have to think. Eight perhaps. But one of them is four times the size of the rest and is basically one monster slope.

You get the feeling that after building so many dry stone walls on the mountain that our predecessors just went “eff it”, let’s just leave this one as a slope.

And you may be able to guess by the pictures that I started with the easiest ones. The terraces that actually can be tamed by the lawnmower. And you are right. I’m building myself up for the tedious strimming.   But having said that, you do need a bit of skill. I have the blade way down to 2 for this easy terrace, but you have to make sure you don’t mow off the heads of the flowering thyme, but really go for the wretched yellow verbascums. And the fleabane.

The third terrace (forgot to take a pic of the second while it was an action shot) was simpler. Start at the highest level you can go (7 if you are interested) to half kill the spanish broom and the brambles. Then once you have almost tamed it, drop it down to a nice sharp 3 and try and pretend you are mowing a lawn.

For an encore I mowed the road. Look how green it is after that gorgeous inch of rain. Almost reminds one of spring. This should be the last mow of the year. So it may just stay this neat until spring.