Mowing The Lawn On A Massive Scale

Some amazing images of mowing the lawn on a turf farm.

Have you ever wondered where turf comes from?  Who grows it? where? and how?

Here’s an insight into the art of growing turf for the UK landscaping and gardening industry.

You may have grown a grass lawn from seed in the past.  The principals of turf growing are much the same, but of course everything is done on a much larger sale.  It needs more people and greater expertise – after all, this needs to be a high quality product that can be harvested and then transplanted into almost any soil type.  It also needs bigger machinery. Can you imagine mowing a 20 Hectare field of turf using an electric rotary mower?  It might take a while.

Mowing is one of the most important jobs in turf growing

Mowing is the most important thing you can do to keep your lawn in good order.  The same applies to turf growing.  You can buy the best soil, the best seed and be and expert in turf nutrition, but if you don’t get the mowing right – you won’t have a very good crop.

First; Find a good lawn mower

True for you and true for us.  Here is our newest set of turf mowers being delivered.

Next, Get a lawn

Now start mowing

It looks as though these pictures have been staged for the camera – but far from it.  Turf is mown every couple of days during the growing season.  We never let the grass get long and then scalp it.  That would stress the plants too much.  We’re aiming for strong, healthy grass plants that make strong healthy turf.

You might wonder what happens to all of those grass clippings.   On a lawn, its a matter for preference.  For my own lawn, my rule of thumb is “when it’s dry, let them fly” because I want to return the nutrients to the soil.   On Turfonline’s turf fields, the clippings will be collected by another machine and taken away for composting.

Wider mowers mean to speedier mowing

The v-mow you can see in most of these pictures covers around 15 hectares of turf every hour.  That’s the equivalent of 21 football pitches.

Turf mowing – a driver’s eye view

A big thankyou goes to Stuart Goodge.  As well as being a vital member of our turf production team, Stuart is a skilled photographer. All of the photos and videos in this blog are his.

See more of Stuart’s photos on his website