Most of us will have forgotten what our mowers (both the mechanical and human types) look like this summer. The lawn mower certainly hasn’t been the most used item in the shed this year, and after a no-mow six months, an expert is advising when we should do our last cut. And it’s sooner than you think.

Gardening expert, James Ewens, has broken down the optimal time for your last lawn cut in every major UK city based on latest projected trends in weather, temperature thresholds, daylight patterns, and grass variety.

He advises, “Timing is everything when tending to your lawn. Once temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius, grass will simply stop growing. Leaving your lawn cut too late in super cold conditions can actually harm your grass long term, and if you stop mowing too early in the year, you’ll risk a messy lawn and weakened grass. Timing your last cut just right ensures you can enter the winter with healthy grass that has a strong root system - laying the foundations for healthy growth in spring.”

I’m not sure what the guys who mow as a profession and for a living will make of that and I am renown for an emoji-style eye-roll whenever I read similar non-specific, ‘blanket-advice’.

Despite any advice – well meaning or well-marketed - most people will do the last cut when it suits them. And as for any possibility of ‘damaging your grass’, just look at your lawn right now. That brown, crispy patch is already heroically showing signs of life after just a little rain. It will do what it does best and recover organically by next year – whether you do your last cut on August Bank Holiday or Christmas Day.

And there’s my sleek link into the C word. I’m really not a fan of mentioning Christmas, verbally, before the 15th December but with regards to my columns, over the years I have been gently reminded that lots of people ‘start early’ and like to get presents sorted out in an organised way to limit financial and stress pressures.

The ‘heritage’ gardening company, Burgon and Ball, are forecasting a bright, colourful festive season with lots of their goods transforming from traditional greens, greys and browns into vivid colour as part of the RHS-endorsed FloraBrite range. Having to think up new trends and ‘takes’ on old favourites would give me a headache but one indisputable benefit of brightly coloured hand tools is that you are less likely to lose them. I still think rather than the FloraBrite Range, it should be called the Menopausal Memory Assortment but that’s probably why I’m not in marketing. More details at www.burgonandball.com

Foraging is a word that irks me. What happened to ‘picking’? That’s what we did as kids. We picked blackberries and sloes and hazel nuts. And we only picked enough for our own home use. I only ever picked and ate hazelnuts until they kept me up all night coughing. It was a narrow picking window. But now it seems that foraging is becoming an Olympic sport – and as such, there have been ‘warnings’ in the press about the legalities of it.

As very few people have enough land to ‘forage’ on it is worth remembering that The Countryside Act says that, “Foraging the 4 F’s (fruit, foliage, flora and fungus) from common land is acceptable so long as it is for personal consumption only. This means moderate amounts for you and your family only, and most obviously not for ‘commercial foraging’ purposes.

Years ago that came under the heading of ‘common sense’, but tragically sense is no longer common.