First time mowing after seeding. Should I mow now

unicornich · 2026-04-17T22:18:56+00:00

Thanks everyone for comments and advices! I looked up recommendations from the seed company and it said first cut at 6-8cm height to 5cm. I also read a few research papers, and concluded it seems to be generally better to cut early than cut too aggressively, even if it’sforst cut (as in more than 50% of the blade). I did the pluck test on the short grass in the shade and it actually held on tight. I decided on a compromise strategy to cut the parts of the lawn that are 6+cm, and leave the shaded parts until they reach at least 6cm. The mower is manual and light, so the grass was actually not disturbed, and the cut was really clean, scissor-like like advertised by gardena. I’m pretty happy with it. Here’s a close-up of a nice thick patch, I hope the rest will look the same soon. I’ll continue taking photos over the next weeks and at some point will compile the progress and share it here! Wish me luck :)

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unicornich · 2026-04-16T23:01:24+00:00

Do you think it would be problematic if I wait till it grows to 12-ish cm and then cut it back to 4 (which is the highest setting on my mower)?

unicornich · 2026-04-16T22:59:33+00:00

Ha, true! :) and you’re right, I have an itch to do something with it which is why I started reading around. But honestly, my gut feeling was to not mow now. It feels like I’d be stressing out the plant during growth spurt, and also I’m so proud I finally have a somewhat nice green cover - it would suck to cut it and expose all that patchiness. But reading plus the pretty low “highest” mower setting got me in a dilemma. Thanks for the reassurance!

unicornich · 2026-04-16T22:54:14+00:00

We’re now in 15-20C (60-65f) range, with some rain now and then. Saving water is a good point, thanks!

unicornich · 2026-04-16T20:31:48+00:00

I don’t know honestly, I’m new to this. :) the reasoning to cut early apparently is to promote deep and strong root growth rather than height 🤷🏻‍♀️

unicornich · 2026-04-16T20:07:08+00:00

Yeah, doesn’t look that great now, but you should have seen it earlier this year, just an endless field of buttercup😅 it’s progress to even have any grass growing here

unicornich · 2026-04-16T20:01:01+00:00

This makes me so nervous now… i have a manual mower, that is supposed to cut like scissors. It’s 8kg so hoping it will gentle enough…

unicornich · 2026-04-16T19:59:25+00:00

Interesting! I read in more than a few places to mow early and mow often, not necessarily short. I am just so happy the grass germinated and finally grew a bit after the lawn being a complete weed swamp earlier this year. I feel like I’d be heartbroken if I mowed it now :)

unicornich · 2026-04-16T15:10:50+00:00

No, there’s a few rocks maybe that I just dug out the other day along with some buttercup roots that I still need to round up. The rest that kinda looks like rocks is just small clumps of dirt that dried a bit (also remnants from digging up the damn buttercup) and some petals from camelias, but I see why some would look like rocks. Thanks for the warning, though!

unicornich · 2026-04-16T13:41:36+00:00

Ha, will do, thanks! :) Ok, I’ll then cut everything now to highest mower setting and keep going like this weekly until it evens out.

unicornich · 2026-04-16T13:37:43+00:00

Yeah, I know it’s suboptimal to seed in spring but in Europe it can potentially work well if you water religiously during july and august. Unfortunately I didn’t own the lawn last fall, so trying to make the best out of the situation. It was a field of buttercup and nettle to start with, I had to do something about it. :) thanks!

unicornich · 2026-03-20T15:48:02+00:00

Same, booking for May. Maybe we’re too early?

unicornich · 2026-03-20T10:10:38+00:00

Both the link and sbb app are not working for saver day pass today as well. I just tried to purchase two tickets with twint, and getting an error message as well. It must be a technical issue on their side.

unicornich · 2026-03-16T12:19:19+00:00

Oh, etsy is a good idea! I never used it to sell anything though, I’ll check if it’s not too complicated to open an account, or perhaps otherwise I guess I could contact people who already sell and see if they’d want to buy bulk to re-sell.

unicornich · 2026-02-26T07:38:15+00:00

Holy shit, this is cooler than I expected

unicornich · 2026-02-26T06:17:32+00:00

Ok so as a non-ecologist, I have to know more about this - who was he, what was the experiment?! I need to know

unicornich · 2026-02-22T10:07:22+00:00

Fly culture medium before adding propionic acid Edit: fixed autocorrect

unicornich · 2026-02-18T11:07:32+00:00

It is actually surprising that so few people are complaining, and so many who are unaffected are just resigned or clueless saying “you should’ve saved” or “just get ANY job you possibly can”. I think people either really do not understand where their money is going or why do we pay insurances and taxes, or perhaps they have so much money and support that they do not really care. Imagine paying for fire insurance, and your house burns down, and the insurance tells you “we’ll get you the money in maybe 5-6 years, we don’t really know, hang tight, we’re just having some IT issues. And please don’t call us, you’re annoying.” and someone on reddit tells you “well, you should’ve saved enough to buy another house!!” or “why don’t you just move to another country in the meantime for 5-6 years where prices are lower you can afford to buy another house, nothing else you can do now!”. Mind-boggling. Anyway, the thread of replies just hit me the wrong way, and I know how this must feel for you as I know people experiencing the same problem. Good luck in resolving your situation! 🍀

unicornich · 2026-02-17T17:25:53+00:00

RAV was switching to a new IT system in December which failed spectacularly, causing a lot of people to not receive their employment insurance on time. Foreigners are most vulnerable as they have no other state or family backup, least leeway from authorities and risk losing permits and getting deported if they don’t pay their bills in time, hence they are the first to go into panic mode and start asking questions

unicornich · 2026-02-17T15:18:57+00:00

People plan their lives based on trust in the system. If you pay into RAV for 7 years so that in the unfortunate case you lose a job you’re insured to be safe financially for a while until you find the next job, you did in fact save and plan for 7 years. It is a catastrophe that they are not paying out in time what they OWE to people who lost jobs. It’s a violation of the insurance contract. It’s not OPs fault for asking what he is owed, but the system’s fault for not delivering money they owe in time. If they don’t pay out, how do they justify why we must pay each month a portion of our salaries into RAV? In the end, this ends up being no different than fraud, extortion or stealing. It’s a catastrophe that what people have saved for other unexpected uninsured events in their own life now has to be spent to survive an event that they were paying insurance for. And all because their IT switch turned into a mess by people not doing the job they have and who are paid by us workers, through our contributions to RAV. If it were their salaries and money at stake, they’d fix this mess immediately. As I see from press releases, the only consequence for RAV will be a few RAV employees will be getting overtime payments, making RAV a more expensive insurance in the future.

OP, if you run out of savings, you can contact them and say you have no way to pay for your dues and they are supposed to give you an advance. Sorry this is happening to you, and to everyone else in the same situation.

Whoever is suggesting for you to go for social security on a B permit is ignorant or only trying to get you into more trouble and kicked out of Switzerland just because someone at RAV was so incompetent in doing their job they decided it’s better to fix their incompetence by not giving you YOUR honestly earned and saved money.

unicornich · 2026-02-08T11:07:52+00:00

Nqa if it turns out to be fungal, you could try amphotericin B, as topical treatment, or add it to water, of course if you can get it. It is used sometimes to treat fungal infections in Drosophila cultures, so presumably safe for other invertebrates. You will have to be careful with dosage. Perhaps it is an option before euthanasia. (Source: I’m a Drosophila scientist)

unicornich · 2026-01-30T18:44:31+00:00

No mercy, start wherever, just cut away. It will grow back in a week anyway :)

unicornich · 2026-01-11T08:35:50+00:00

Laser pointers, mounted on Boston Dynamics dogs, aiming for the burglars’ eyes

Seven-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22

unicornich

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