When Gill, my mother-in-law asked me to house-sit and feed her cat for a couple of weeks while she was away on a cruise, I was excited at the prospect of having coffee and exercising in her beautiful garden. However, I was disappointed to see the garden overgrown in a state that I'd never seen before, so I decided to cut the grass.

I have no real experience, nor have I done grass cutting in recent years, but I had no intention of staring at the overgrown lawn and not doing something about it.

Gill is fussy, demanding, and hard to please, but she is no longer capable of using the lawnmower and has difficulty finding a gardener. Gill confessed that the reason she has such difficulty finding a gardener is because she has scared away everyone due to their incompetence. However, she was happy for me to tackle it as there was a dire need for the grass to be cut.

Talk about pressure, eh?

Anyway, I decided to go see what's inside the shed.

She had all the right tools—an electric lawnmower and all—but the grass was so high and thick that I thought it was best to first trim the grass with the grasscutter.

My first attempt with the grasscutter was daunting because I was using muscles that were tight and weak, which made me feel some tendinitis pain in my extensor muscles.

Although I got the hang of it pretty quickly, I was careful not to screw it up.

First section BEFORE

First section after the first cut.

Cutting grass can be addictive, therapeutic and grounding!

The smell of fresh grass was soothing and made me feel re-energised and cheerful, even though it was at the end of a long day, and I was loving the process. The freshness of being outdoors and cutting the grass cleared my sinuses, and I felt motivated to carry on.

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Day two

The weather was overcast when I woke up, but it was warm enough for me to delve right in and carry on from where I left it the previous day.

My original plan was to cut the grass in two stages: first, by using the grass cutter to trim the tall grass, and second, with the lawnmower.

I went on YouTube and I never found the exact model of this lawnmower, but Gill did mention that the lawnmower needs to be adjusted to the right height to avoid the blades digging up the roots of the grass.

However, I've decided to end with the grass cutter only, as I'm not keen on operating the lawnmower.

I think this is enough evidence that the grasscutter was sufficient.

Here is the result.

The cat came and sniffed it, and she sat on it and looked at me as if to say thanks for doing this for me, but she ran away before I could take her photo.

This is just day two of the two weeks that I'll be here at Gill's house, and I plan to do yoga daily in the garden.

So far, so good, and my yoga sessions would have been unpleasant on overgrown grass. I'll continue with the manicuring of the lawn, and I'll probably give the hedges a go too.

Are you big on gardening, and do you have a lawn that you maintain regularly? I'm keen to hear any tips that you have for enhancing your garden.

All images were photographed by me on the 12 and 13 May 2024 in Leicester, UK.

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I'm just the girl next door who finds that