I've never had what could be called a nice front lawn. The torment began about ten years ago when the city installed a lamp-post on my boulevard and replaced the grass with lousy sod. Weedy, and apparently grub filled, the sod pretty much did a number on much of the front lawn and started on the neighbour's. Weeded, Killex, what have you only made things worse. Last fall I sprayed nematodes on both mine, and the neighbour's grass. This spring, no grubs!
Now onto the chewed all to rat-crap grass and the creeping charlie infestation. Unbeknownst to me, the wifely unit in a fit of pity for me, signed up for regular Weed Man visits. Unbeknownst to her, I arranged to have a dumptruck of topsoil, uhhh, dumped on our sad lawn and I bought a huge bag of peat moss and an even huger bag of lawn seed. A furious night in late May shoveling, spreading, mixing in the peat and a savage over-seeding resulted in the next month and a half of almost religious watering, tending and nurturing to the point where I could safely run a freshly sharpened (thanks, lapping compound!) reel mower over the thick grass. With the wet, cool summer we had, I didn't experience the usual August burn, and the grass out front looked great. Even the regular Weed Man visits were helpful.
Then the wifely unit bought an electric lawn edger. I didn't think we needed one just yet, but it was on sale. Now, Weed Man told us that the soil needed aerating (probably due to my psychotic lawn rolling after seeding). Spend four hundred bucks for that? I don't think so.
I'm on holiday this week, and with time on my hands, I thought, what the heck, let's aerate...but my way. I put the lawn edger together this morning and sliced relatively even lines in my nice lawn, much to the amusement of the folks across the street. When I was done, it looked like Freddy Krueger had scraped his hand across the lawn. Back to TSC for another huge bag of grass seed and five bags of topsoil. A mix of peat moss and topsoil, and hand tossing the seed, followed by a couple laps of the seed spreader and a healthy watering, and more of the same in the backyard and I'm done...for now. I'm going back for a light watering once the sun goes down tonight and will continue this for a couple weeks.
Soon I'll have a really nice lawn.
With all this work going on today I had time to think and came to the conclusion this slavish devotion to precise grooming of my lawn is an offshoot of my slavish devotion to shaving. I really wouldn't have had the patience to go all out in this lawn maintenance project if I didn't have the same patience I've developed since beginning wetshaving last winter.
Anyone else have the same sort moment of Zen with any other "chore" with what you've learned through taking the time each day while shaving?
Now onto the chewed all to rat-crap grass and the creeping charlie infestation. Unbeknownst to me, the wifely unit in a fit of pity for me, signed up for regular Weed Man visits. Unbeknownst to her, I arranged to have a dumptruck of topsoil, uhhh, dumped on our sad lawn and I bought a huge bag of peat moss and an even huger bag of lawn seed. A furious night in late May shoveling, spreading, mixing in the peat and a savage over-seeding resulted in the next month and a half of almost religious watering, tending and nurturing to the point where I could safely run a freshly sharpened (thanks, lapping compound!) reel mower over the thick grass. With the wet, cool summer we had, I didn't experience the usual August burn, and the grass out front looked great. Even the regular Weed Man visits were helpful.
Then the wifely unit bought an electric lawn edger. I didn't think we needed one just yet, but it was on sale. Now, Weed Man told us that the soil needed aerating (probably due to my psychotic lawn rolling after seeding). Spend four hundred bucks for that? I don't think so.
I'm on holiday this week, and with time on my hands, I thought, what the heck, let's aerate...but my way. I put the lawn edger together this morning and sliced relatively even lines in my nice lawn, much to the amusement of the folks across the street. When I was done, it looked like Freddy Krueger had scraped his hand across the lawn. Back to TSC for another huge bag of grass seed and five bags of topsoil. A mix of peat moss and topsoil, and hand tossing the seed, followed by a couple laps of the seed spreader and a healthy watering, and more of the same in the backyard and I'm done...for now. I'm going back for a light watering once the sun goes down tonight and will continue this for a couple weeks.
Soon I'll have a really nice lawn.
With all this work going on today I had time to think and came to the conclusion this slavish devotion to precise grooming of my lawn is an offshoot of my slavish devotion to shaving. I really wouldn't have had the patience to go all out in this lawn maintenance project if I didn't have the same patience I've developed since beginning wetshaving last winter.
Anyone else have the same sort moment of Zen with any other "chore" with what you've learned through taking the time each day while shaving?