Thanks to all of you who took the time to write in and tell us why your lawn is in need of some loving.
We've had a phenomenal response with hundreds of stories, poems and photos received. But as with all competitions there can be only one lucky winner (or in our case, two).
Drum role please...
Continue reading "And the winning lawns to get our loving are..." »
Juan-Carlos Rodriguez says:
I would love to love my lawn every week and introduce it to a Flymo Visimo which would give it the love and attention it needs.
Alas, our lawn mower has seen better days and often comes to a juddering halt when a thick bit of grass crosses its path.
As for the strimmer, it only works when you swing it from side to side, which does not please the local cat.
I often find myself tangled up; strangled. I now know how our flowers must feel as the weeds approach...
Mike Willett says:
I am lonely and need some love myself.
What on earth has that got to do with loving a lawn, I here you say?
Well, it's like this. With global warming making the winters warmer and the springs hotter, the grass is growing higher & higher all the time.
Helen, my better half, went onto our lawn to feed the birds, clear up the hedgehog's mess and check the bulbs, and I haven't seen her since.
That was in early February. I think I hear her calling sometimes and that makes me feel even more lonely.
I would love my lawn cut so I could find and be with her again.
Andrew Humphrey from Stockport, Cheshire says:
My Lawn needs a love because it has to satisfy sooooo many people.
There's Bill and Ben (The plant pot men) and there's the blue cat.
Then there's the bird bath and the hedgehog - not to mention the greenhouse and sheds.
My lawn looks after them all !!! And the second photo shows who the real boss is - the black cat who will not allow anyone else on our lawn !!!!
Gillian Dow from Worcester says:
My house dates from 1650 and I'm sure the lawn is the original!
Moss, weeds and bare patches abound but we are trying to give it some tender loving care - as well as feeding it regularly and applying moss and weed killer.
What it needs now is regular mowing by a machine that cares for the lawn its mowing.
Jo Bryan from Peterborough says:
My poor lawn has suffered terribly because of two main factors, one my love of the Internet has taken me away from looking after it.
The dandelions, moss and some strange spreading weed has nearly taken over and the grass needs saving.
The other reason for its poor state is the new game my tins found last year which was laying a hose on the slide and shooting down it along the grass on a mat. It never really recovered.
Jenny Robertson from Liverpool says:
My lawn looks so tired and slightly worn out,
with tufts of weeds and old toys strewn about.A slide, a pool, a table and chairs,
with spots that have gone brown beneath the suns glare.We take it for granted, I guess you could say,
but it's there for my children, who all love to play.It suffers the weather, the football and general wear,
but what would I do if my lawn wasn't there?It would no longer be green or soft to walk on,
it would no longer be welcoming when the sun shone.I think I would miss it - that thought makes me sad,
it's the only real lawn that I've ever had.I should take more care of it, I promise - I do,
I'll pick up the toys - and there are quite a few!I might even cut it, a little water maybe,
I could plant some flowers to keep it company!I do love my lawn, it's part of my home,
A safe little haven all of my own.
Toni and all the hens and goats from Black Roack Sanday say:
These and these are responsible for this...
Rescue chickens, cocks and seven rescue goats all named houdini have caused chaos on my lawn/green mess.
Their pen was so badly damaged in this years gales I cant keep them in/out of garden. The lawn is in an awful mess and hasn't been helped by the loss of all my tools and mower, not to mention the water damage from the same gales (and insurance being snail like in dealing with loss).
Eight weeks on and still no further, so please be nice and help me twice, send me a mower to make my lawn nice... please!
Victoria Hill from Darlington says:
We are in the process of doing our garden after moving house, getting married and having a baby but rather than tell you about all of that we've created a little ditty:
Round and round the garden struggling with weeds and turf,
My old lawn mower has seen its best it makes me want to curse.
I'm dreaming of a lush green lawn to fill my heart with pride,
I'd use the Flymo Visimo every week as it's far too good to hide.
I can see my neighbours watching as we glide across the grass,
Using a Flymo Visimo would really cut a dash.
As you can see from the photo it's really starting to take shape, although it still has some way to go.
Emily Jallat says:
Our lawn definitely needs some loving.
Today it arrived all rolled up from a harsh journey in the back of a truck all the way from Reading. Imagine having to travel to your new home all rolled up!
Anyway after the arduous journey it was unrolled onto some dirt that had been meticulously cleared of stones and debris by two hard workers one of whom found it so exhausting that they needed to sit down and rake their wellington boots (picture shows the preparation).
So that our lawn loves it's new home we really need a Flymo Visimo to keep it looking it's best and the envy of all the neighbours.
PS - We really do need one as we have not got one!
D. Radford says:
It's the sweetest little mower and it has a heart of gold
It does its little best only like me it's getting old
So are you only ordinary just the same as me?
I don't tell this to everyone but I have ESP
Don't grass on me.
Seth Davies, Leicester says:
Well the photos should really speak for themselves and as the famous quote says: "a picture is worth a thousand words…"
You’ll notice that my lawn doesn’t need a thousand words, just a few… Jungle, Jungle, Jungle!
I know you want me to tell you why my lawn needs some loving, but I think the pictures do that themselves. I thought about ‘air brushing’ them in Photoshop but I can’t hide the fact that it’s more Amazon Jungle than Titchmarsh’s ‘Contemporary, Amazon themed landscape with accompanying pagoda!’
In-fact, I really just want to thank you for running this competition which I stumbled across as you have opened my eyes to the awful mess of my lawn and to the stark reality that the Toad living in there (who I now call my friend) needs to move on!
My wife won’t step foot on the lawn because of that little chap and now until the point of sending this mail...I felt no shame.
However, in literal terms I can't see the wood for the trees…
Can you help me please?
Original poem by Mrs Eileen Watson,
Matlock, Derbyshire:
With life so fast we all agree, we spend too much on economy.
We tend to our homes, ourselves, our cars.
But never a moment, do we think of our grass.
We all should take the time to show, how grateful
we are for what we know.
What would it take, for us to give,
A water, a feed, what more does it need.
Just keep it healthy and looking fine,
Please just stop, and take the time.
To think of our lawns and what they need.
Without them the world would be gloomy indeed.
Not nice and tidy and never replaced
The ground would be a messy place.
Take just a small time, to wonder because.
Our grass is so special just treat it so thus
Make it feel loved and needed so we.
Will benefit forever.
With the grass that we need.
Annerhc says:
I've just bought a property that needs a little attention....after I've removed the 100ft of brambles!!
Just look at them in this photo!!
Praven says:
My back garden needs loving to stop my husband using it as a dumping ground, as you can see from the photo I have started working around his junk in the hope of getting the garden ready for the summer.
In the meantime the grass just keeps getting longer and longer and longer...........HELP!
I also have a front lawn that needs some TLC. We share it with our neighbours and he is a bit of a fanatic. We each look after our own half and I would love to have a perfect stripe on my side just to show him we can.
My old Flymo is past its best now and I would love one with a grass collection box.
Mrs C. Y Smith says:My Lawn needs loving because I have 3 dogs, a lurcher a greyhound and a westie and last year they decided to use the garden as a racetrack, which you will be able to see in the following picture.
This year I have tried to repair the lawn by filling in with Topsoil and receding, it is not looking as bad but no where near as good as it did before the dogs decided to destroy it.
But I would not part with the dogs, I have built a fence to keep them off the lawn at the moment. It is in need of tender loving care.
Ms Webster says:My lawn is in need of some TLC as my dog Holly has run around on it since we got her as a rescue puppy.
Also my son's trampoline has helped to make it worse.
Mrs Holczimmer says:
Our son is an 8 yr old Frank Lampard clone; he therefore practices dawn to dusk on our once healthy looking lawn!!
Our current flymo was great until the rabbit, Starsky (sad I know!!), decided he fancied the cable for breakfast.
So we are now in need of a new one and would love the opportunity to get our hands on the Visimo, which would be kept well out of his reach and hopefully help us restore some life back into our football pitch!!
Viv says:
This is my back garden. As you can see, it really does need some tender loving care. My old mower is on its last legs and refuses to maintain a low cut height so the grass is cut to all sorts of different lengths! My house is up for sale and I'd like to keep the garden looking better.
I have two dogs so the grass really does needs some help. The resident pair of blackbirds would, I'm sure, enjoy a smoother "bowling green" finish! I'd put the Visimo to very good use I promise. Fingers crossed
Monica says:
I am a childminder whose cared-for children enjoy the garden to the full. "Dandelion clocks" have been blown so much that my lawn is just a mass of weeds. Buttercups and Daisies get picked frequently for gifts (or appologies), and of course wheeled toys race around like it's Brands Hatch. So if you can offer one per-cent of the love I have for the children to my poor over-worked lawn, we'd...(weed!!).. excuse the pun..be very very grateful.
Margaret says:
At the risk of getting boring, this is my front garden taken today. I always thought grass grew anywhere but it looks like I was wrong.
It really isn't for the want of trying. There is still some at the back to cut and a new lightweight mower would be very acceptable.
D Crossling says:
I am absolutely out of my mind since my FLYMO lawnmower stopped working, I loved that machine, I stupidly thought that buying a Black & Decker mower (because it was a few pounds cheaper & I am quite strapped for cash @ the moment) I thought I would get pretty much the same results.
But never again its just false economy if it just isn't up to the job. As you can see I have even had the council serveyors round, complaints from the neighbours saying my grass is blocking out there light, but even on its shortest setting this is the best the inferior mower can do.
Please help before my neighbours attack me or the council evict me. All I need is a Flymo & I am sure I can get my unruly lawn back under control.
S Baber from Birmingham:
R Hobbs from Derby:
My lawn needs some loving because it is the main battle ground for the most feared creature in our close....my cat Bobbin. Oh yes in the photo she looks sweet, fluffy and cute but you wouldn't say that if you were a visiting feline. passing through my garden. The small gauges across the lawn were visiting moggies make a sudden turn and dash for safety are the tell tales sign that Bobbin rules this area!
D Smyth from Essex says:
I’m Dave and I’m disabled, so my dear wife looks after our council house garden in Harold Hill. She tends it so carefully and when our present lawnmower can not cut the grass, she gets down on her hands and knees with a pair of shears and cut the grass, even though she is sometimes in pain.
Compared to the state when we first moved into the house, it’s really looks nice, and with a little help I have started a small tunnel of roses in deep red, to go through to the back gate in memory of my grandmother also to show the wife how much I love her.
She is the best person in the world and although we have been married seventeen years in now of this year (we met and married within six weeks) there is never a day when I don’t tell her how much I love her.
She comes from Philippines and is a truly remarkable person. We would love this machine to have as it might be a lighter one for her to cut the grass then the one we have. I hope I win this machine so that she does not have to bother if this one ever breaks down.
Ashleigh DeCordova says:
I have recently Moved back home and I brought a puppy with me and he has run round in circles in me mums and dads garden and wrecked it so now me mum and dads garden is in need of some loving.
Keren Curran says:
My lawn mower is a petrol one but due to problems with bricks and tree roots in my garden its now falling to bits, I’ m thinking of throwing it away and could do with a new one which I can use in my lovely front garden, which myself and partner have spent a great deal of time getting it right.
A & J Jennings says:
Our lawn needs more than a little bit of TLC.
It is uneven and looks unloved despite best efforts.
It is patchy, and the grass seems to choose where it wants to grow. The lovely examples you see on TV of lawns are a million miles from ours.
I would love to win this item to help us try and make it easy on the eye and make us enjoy it in the summer months
Mrs Smith from Norwick says:
My husband is a landscape gardener, and as you know what then happens - our garden never gets a look in. All he has it large petrol mower which I find hard to push, but I need to find them first in his garage. Well, we have recently moved (well last May) and I now have a new lawn, every night I go and water it and make sure its bedding in nicely, but alas, it now needs a cut and i'm dredding looking in the garage for his mower, trying with all my might to pull the pull cord (hoping the neighbours aren't looking) and then speed off round the garden until its done.
I would love my own mower, so I could lock it away in my own shed which he has brought for me. So I could cut the grass without all the fussing around.
Melanie from Bristol:
‘ Me' lawn would like one of those' fancy Flymo Visimo's
That mower looks a little thin;
I’ll make sure it’s fed up nice ‘n’ good – if I win!
I’m all ready fed up moving my lawn, doing it even made my trousers torn.
Finishing the job would be a good thing, so hopefully I’ll be winning!
B Porter says:
For months I've ignored the small space outside my backdoor remembering back in the summer when my grandson played and the family gathered for barbeques.
Then a nice trim lawn with no nettles, today the news was buzzing its a very warm day and its going to be warm all week, so armed with a book and sun cream I walk out into my garden.
You guessed it my garden had turned into a wildlife paradise I forgot grass grew in the winter. Now panic stations I ask my husband to cut the lawn but he neglected to tell me that the lawnmower I had lovingly bought him years ago was rusty and broke.
So please consider us for a new flymo and I assure you I will look after it and my garden with pride.
Georgaline says:
My garden is 3/4 acre and we have a ride on mower which I hate and I can't use it in the area were I keep my three very cute dogs. My own mower for my own area would mean the world to me; I would never have to wait for my husband to do it or have to nag him. My cats and dogs could just roll all summer long.
J Shepherd says:
My Lawn needs some loving because my son loves a digging it up!
Helen says:
We are moving into a now house and I am relocating to that area. It's our first house we are buying. The lawn has been drastically left to grow wild and is full of weeds and long grass. i don't ahve any photos as we aren't in there yet till May but as we haven't had a house of our own we have never had the need for garden tools so this would be a fantastic start.
R Carter says:
Sorry I cannot afford a camera so you can guess what my lawns are like no mower.
S Strong says:
My lawn needs some tender loving care - it is infested with moss and daisies and the edges are broken. Both my husband and I have had serious surgery and are unable to push around a heavy lawnmower. Our garden is a lovely shape and has lots of potential and a new Flymo lawnmower would be wonderful.
C Nicholas says:
My old Flymo is old and as a pensioner cannot afford a new one.
Miss Z Leontim says:
My poor lawn needs a Flymo Visimo because I spent last bank holiday weekend mowing my lawn for nearly two hours before I realized my (very old) Flymo was merely making noise.
It wasn't spinning and didn't cut even one blade of grass, however I did manage to flatten most of the grass by pushing the flymo around again and again and my arms were killing me for 3 days after that!
Single mum of three lazy kids who wouldn't help me! They thought it was hilarious when they found out I didn't actually cut the grass!
A Foster says:
Because my grass has had few month stress and i need to regenerate for few cut should do the trick.
The Said family from Durham says:
Five years ago our lawnmower broke and we have not been able to budget for a new one. So the poor lawn has not been looked after for all this time, five years of grass growing and no cutting.
Please feel sorry for it and let it win a new Flymo.
Anon:
There’s always something else to buy with three kids to support! I have to make do with a trimmer and my old mower with doesn't have a collection box anymore as my brother broke it two years ago trying to do me a favor by cutting the grass while I was at work! The kids can’t play in the garden anymore as they are either covered in grass cuttings or the grass is so long they lose the football. Please, please, please, help me and my children love and enjoy our garden again instead of dreading sunny days.
Philippa Reddington says:
My lawn is a vast imaginary expanse in my brain - my gran's however is real and in desperate need of attention since last week she decided to mow the cable rather than the lawn! Now all this would have been fine if it wasn't for the fact that she then decided to finish off the edges with the trimmer; which promptly fell apart. At this rate the golf club won't let her anywhere near in case she jinxes the grass there.....
Wendy Lackenby says:
My lawn needs loving because it is a work in progress, after having moved in and work completed on the inside, our former residents did not succumb to the 'green stuff'' having covered up the beautiful soft green blankets with flipping concrete, I don't really think they knew what they were missing out on, think of all the picnics on the lawn!!!!!!!
I can't wait to get that back!!!!! We have of course started to put so called 'baby gates' around the new soon to be lawn to stop the dog from going there, I swear he thinks it says lavatory on there!!!!
Once my new lush green fragrant lawn is complete, it would be fantastic to keep it looking gorgeous all year round with a new lawn mower!
