What I thought I knew - My dad used to mow the lawn. I'm not sure about the first house I remember living in, but in the San Fernando Valley, my dad mowed the lawn. This house had a type of grass called dichondra, which looked very much like small lily pads, with leaves from a half to one inch in diameter. It sometimes got to about 3 inches high, at which point, my dad would mow it. He spent more time weeding this lawn. I can remember him in the summer, outside sitting on the lawn with a transistor radio and a Busch beer, pulling weeds. He was especially vigilant about the dreaded spotted spurge. This weed resembles the equally dreaded and sharp 'goathead' weed found in Idaho, spreading it's thin vegetation over the flat ground. Sometimes, I joined my dad pulling weeds, and sometimes I had to work on the lawn. Mostly, I recall that the lawn was a haven for snails in the evening; I learned to never go walking in the dichondra without shoes after dark.
After we moved to Salt Lake City, I started mowing the lawn. It was a large grass lawn, and I don't recall much weeding. I was assigned most of the lawn mowing after I was in my junior year of high school. This was eased by the presence of an electric mower. I also trimmed the pyracantha bushes with a power clipper with sliding blades. Only my mom was allowed to trim the roses. The lawn in front of the house occasionally played court to our volleyball games in the summer. Once, someone who was angry at my dad ran his car across the lawn, leaving two long gouged tire trails that lasted for a year and longer. Sometimes, my parents hired out the mowing to a member of the church youth group. I volunteered to bring these boys iced tea; after all, it was hot in the summer and they surely required refreshment.
The next time I worked on a lawn was after moving to Seattle. There I learned that lawns can be persnickety and temperamental. This lawn required fertilizer, almost no water, and the removal of quantities of moss. Fortunately, there was not much of the lawn and we had a power mower. My neighbor next door used a push mower, but he and his family were sort of hippies. I have never succumbed to the romance of having a push mower; but I did learn how to sharpen the blade of mine. Seattle has lots of greenery, but the wide expanses of lawn are often wet and not as friendly to picnicking as you might think. The high point of our Seattle lawn was returning after a Sunday brunch to find 100's of plastic forks stuck in our grass. Eventually, this trick was recycled in Boise on the perpetrator.
What I know now - I really enjoy mowing my lawn. It's small and takes only about 30 minutes total mowing time. Removing the leaves and pine cones requires more of my effort and time. This lawn lives in Boise, and has been mine since I moved into this place when it was new. Over time, a small ditch has formed in the front yard, delineating the water line from my house to the outside shut off valve. The side yard facing mostly north has become mossy and the lawn has started to die off under the two enormous pine trees and the maple in the back yard. Clearly, I am not good at picturing the future of large plants. I have two Ponderosa Pines planted from seedlings on the side yard. I realize they are forest giants, but I never meant for that to happen in my yard; these are not even the two largest pine trees.
Back to the lawn. Pine needles kill everything and make a big mess on the lawn. The Ponderosa's have 7-10 inch needles, and the other two pines have 2-3 inch needles. Neither needle is easy to rake away, particularly if you wait for them to gather all fall. Because the front lawn has suffered under that pine tree, I have removed the dead grass, forming a flower garden of mostly Columbines, Hollyhocks, some Lupine and transplanted Hostas. Those last need to be moved to the side lawn where they can again enjoy the mossy shade. The side yard shade results from the house and the second large pine tree, a feeding station for squirrels and a constant reminder not to plant things too close to the house. I am planning to find some type of perennial plants to grow, spreading their leaves and hopefully some flowers under that second pine tree. Eventually, there may not be much lawn back there, reducing mowing and watering time.
The maple tree in the back yard does it's job, making a southwestern facing deck off the dining room tolerable even in very hot weather. The past few years have been apparently been enriching for this tree, as it has formed and dropped an enormous amount of seeds, clusters that are larger than it's leaves. The seeds gather in pockets they seem to form in the lawn, creating uneven lawn and bare dirt. Every year I cut and re-cut the maple seedlings that I have lazily allowed to grow around the house. Along with the leaves, the seeds tumble into my rain gutters, forming a rich mulch in just one year! For the first 10-15 years in this house, there was never a need to clean out the gutters; now they require hosing and trowel work twice a year.
The maple tree, naturally, drops it's leaves in the fall. Fortunately or unfortunately as is your preference, they don't all fall on the same day. They linger, floating down as green castaways in the wind during the summer and as golden ground cover during the fall. The leaves, the sun piercing through their multiple bright yellow forms always surprises me with their beauty in the fall. I have taken to raking several times rather than once in an attempt to make the task seem easier when divided into smaller parts. Yet the sum total of each autumn's leaf clean-up grows larger every October. One year, when I was in graduate school, I left the leaves alone, causing the death of any grass beneath my maple tree. When raked, the ground was mostly bare - an invitation for Boise's two weeds of choice, the dandelion and what is known as ground ivy. Eventually, with some hand pulling and more shoveling and trowel work, the weeds were banished to other parts of the yard where my mowing fails to reach them.
The weeds stubbornly grow next to my fence. The Boise Park Service has eradicated some of them along the park line (I have a city park behind me) and I mow the ones along the sidewalk leading to the park. Come August, the Boise Park Service sprays the weeds along the sidewalk too. I have plans for that portion of property along my side fence, but the need for a new fence keeps me from planting something I would kill during a fence build. I recently removed all the junk from the other side yard, the western facing yard that has all the volunteer maples advancing. Here, I planted some donated roses, captured by black plastic and bark for ground cover. Naturally, my lawn, although laced with unexplainable holes here and there, grows best in my flower beds and the junky western side yard.
My lawn has seen the advance of bugs and worms, the march of crabgrass and the invasion of dandelions. I have killed the bugs with a spreadable application over two years, pulled the dandelions every spring and throughout the summer and have yet to tackle the crabgrass. This is not my fault. The crabgrass is coming from my neighbor's yard; we have lawn in common. They have sprinklers; I have hoses and various watering devices. I water once each week after I mow. I move the hose around and set the timer for about 45 minutes. During the summer heat waves during July and August, I will take pity on my front lawn and water more often. My neighbor has his lawn mowed by a team of workers every Tuesday, and like a girls dorm, we all mow on the same day. The Boise Park Service also mows on Tuesday in the park behind me. I used to mow on Fridays or weekends, but as our lawns share space, I feel compelled to have my lawn looking as good as or as short as the neighbor's grass.
This year, I aerated my lawn. It has to be done every once in a while. I fought the machine all over the lawn, re-starting it when it died as I turned left or right. The rental store people only asked if I had tipped the machine when I complained. (How else could I have turned it? Am I supposed to only drive it in a straight line?) My lawn has many obstacles for so small a patch. The back has the maple tree, the weeping cherry, the swing set I played on when I was growing up and the aspens and rhubarb patch. The front is pretty straightforward; I can mow around the edges and then fill in the space easily. The side yard has the two said Ponderosa pines, but the lawn no longer grows near the other pine or close to the house inside the fence on the side yard. Mowing the weeds produces spitting leaves and dirt. Very nice.
Why do I love mowing the yard? Because there is visible proof of my efforts. There is greenery, sunshine, sometimes rain showers and being outdoors. It's the only way I have to show off to my neighborhood, and it contributes to my well-being, especially when I can sit in the shade on my deck, sipping a beverage and surveying all the freshly mowed grass.
