Today marks the beginning of a battle that never truly ended. Having finished my work duties….or most of them….or some of them, I was doing a little cleanup that required me to take the trash outside. I took one look at the front lawn and decided I should rake the area. I knew it would make the lawn look a little better, and it was the firs step in rehabilitating the lawn.
I had expected the weather to be cool, but it wasn’t really. I could have gone for a bike ride, but I got my hands all muddy before I realized that the option existed. I accept the sacrifice I had to make. As far as physical distancing goes, only one person came down the street the entire time I was out there. They were on the other side of the street and didn’t bother to say hello. I guess they misread social distancing to mean socially distant.
As for the lawn, there were leaves leftover from when the snowfall came early. There were broken branches from various windstorms. There were things that the various animals that inhabit the area brought with them and left on my lawn more as an omen than a gift. And then there were the weeds.
Every year, I battle to make the lawn look presentable and every year, I feel as though I am further and further behind. The weeks are winning. While I can’t advocate a return to the days when harsh chemicals were used, I wish I had something that worked equally well and didn’t poison the environment.
The lawn is looking pretty bad–sparse in some areas. I am going to spend hours pulling weeds and putting down grass seed. Maybe this is the year I should invest in one of those companies that seems to have an endless supply of advertisements to stick in my door. I have been working, but I don’t really have the kind of money they are looking for in my spare change jar. I also see them as a kind of scam.
If you’ve got any lawn secrets or have hired the kinds of companies I am talking about, I would love to hear from you. It would be nice to have a lawn that was thick and plush once again.
We have dogs, so the lawn never looks great. When we had my daughters two greyhounds for a week (both bitches) there wasn’t much lawn left by the time they went. the only time it looked good was when I mowed it and left the clippings there. My husband doesn’t like it when I pull the heads off dandelions to stop them seeding but it gives me more time to go find the trowel. Dandelions are the horticultural equivalent of mice; if you have one today you’ll have a tribe of them tomorrow.
My father had a lawn like green velvet and I know he used to treat it with something environmentally kind but I never asked, and now I can’t!