Summer Brush Clearing & Lawn Mowing: Hornet Safety and Land Prep for Stump Removal

English | 日本語

Hello everyone. How are you doing in this heat?

I’m out mowing the grass. Soon, the contractor we hired for stump removal will be visiting, so I’m doing this work as preparation as well. Wow, it’s hot though. Kind of fun, actually. Let’s get started.

Condition before mowing work

The mower uses a nylon cutter blade. The cut grass is left on site to dry out and become dead grass. It makes good compost.

At this time of year, mowing work requires special caution. That is because of snakes and bees. Indeed, during the previous site inspection, a large hornet appeared in front of me and repeatedly flew back toward the deeper forest. I thought it was scouting. I put a hornet repellent spray in my pocket so I can use it at any time.

And on the day itself, sure enough, the hornet showed up again. It came much closer than during the previous inspection. It was charging toward my eyes. I had covered my entire face and neck with a towel under my hat, leaving only my eyes exposed—can hornets tell? I immediately sprayed it. There were also horseflies. You really have to be careful when mowing at this time of year.

The work finished safely. It looks clean.

Since stump removal work by the contractor will be carried out soon, I also wanted them to remove small trees, so I made sure to do detailed mowing.

Condition after mowing work

In places where sunlight was blocked by tree leaves, soil moisture had evaporated and only patches of grass remained. From here on, with sunlight, the soil will improve and change into healthier ground.

Condition of the area that did not receive sunlight before clearing

In this mowing work, I didn’t find any particularly troublesome weeds. I saw dandelions, Japanese knotweed (inu-tade), and cudweed. On the far side (near the compost shed), there was also houttuynia with its distinctive smell.

More importantly, despite the heat, I didn’t get stung by any bees, and everything went well. Now it’s time to hand things over to the contractor.

That’s it for today!