A survey by manufacturer Cub Cadet has found that the 2018 lawnmowing season started over three weeks later than it did in 2017.
The results found that the most popular day for the first mow of the lawn in 2017 was the 26th March, whereas this year it was the 19th April - 24 days later.
This year, England had the wettest March since 1981 with an average rainfall of 102.2mm, and the UK as a whole had its wettest March in a decade with 104.44mm on average. This was followed by a mini-heatwave in mid-April which saw some of the highest temperatures in April since 1949 - a combination which inevitably caused lawns to have a growth spurt and spark the starting of lawnmowers across the country.
The lawnmowing season survey campaign was launched last year as part of Cub Cadet’s ongoing project into assessing the impact of changing weather patterns on lawns, and this is the first set of comparable year-on-year data that has come from the project. The survey is an annual project that will assess the long-term impact of the weather on UK lawns, as well as looking at the short-term effects it can have in delaying the start of the season.
According to Cub Cadet the earliest first mow was as early as the 3rd January, with the latest being reported on 13th May.