Yard Schmard

While house hunting, I looked at A LOT of houses.  I'm sure my realitor wanted to trade me off a couple times.  When I finally found something great, I made an offer.  The first time, it didn't go so well.  The second time (six months later), I became a house owner.  I chose the house for it's layout, great use of windows and natural light.  It also had a nice lawn.  At first, I thought the lawn was great.  I love all the green and the backyard is seeminly a bird and squirrel sanctuary.  There is nothing better then sitting on the couch staring out into the backyard.  Not to mention, Ollie loves it.  He can spend hours just walking around and inspecting the yard.  Apparently it's excellent for sun naps too.  If the weather isn't nice, he sits inside and stares longing outside.   

As time and that first summer season came upon me... I realized just how much work all this green was!  Now, I do mow my yard.  I probably..okay I don't... mow it as much as my neighbors wish.  I try to mow it at least once a week.  And.. let me confess... I don't even own a weedeater.  Does that make me a bad person??? Honestly, I probably mow more of the fear of being fined by the city and/or picketed by the neighbors then my actual desire to mow.  It's not that I don't like the look of a nicely manicured lawn.  I do.  I like the feel of well maintained grass under my feet.  I just don't have the time!

Let me explain a little about my 'hood:  I live in a neighborhood where half the folks are retirement age.  Great for them!  Great for their lawns!  Some of these folks have plush green lawns that are nicer to walk on then the carpet in my living room.  They mow it at least twice a week, weed eat and water it often.  They fertilize, spray for weeds and keep it manicured.  How can a single, working gal keep up with all of that?  I can't.

Spring has jumped in ahead of time with all of this lovely, unseasonably warm weather.  Sure, it's been nice not worrying about an ice storm or losing power due to a pile of snow.  However, in all this sunshine and warmth, my lawn started growing and greening.  At first I tried to pretend it wasn't happening.  I was hoping that maybe it was just a warm week.  Now I know it wasn't.  My lawn has taken off.  I actually had neighbors who started mowing in February.  I ignored it...pretended not to see them.  I was hoping it would take my lawn longer to mature.  Maybe my lawn was a late developer.  Surprisingly, it didn't and wasn't.  Instead, my lawn took off and somewhere along the line got on the wrong path.  I swear all these weeds weren't here last year!   (Okay, maybe half of them were, but where did the rest of these weeds come from???)  I'm now facing a full on, crazy weed epidemic.  It's too the point that I'm afraid I might lose Ollie in the weeds next time he runs outside.     

So I've come up with a couple options for my yard:  

Option A:  Take out all the grass and cover with rocks.  Although, I'm slightly worried about creating a big snake home in my front yard.

Option B: Put in astro-turf.  Drawback: You definitely must clean up the doggie poo... You can't use the..."it's fertilizing the lawn" excuse.

Option C: Win the lottery and hire a lawn crew!  Must buy the lottery ticket first..and then win.  Hey!  Someone needs to win it. 

Option D: Have the lawn sprayed!  At this point, it's going to take SEVERAL treatments.

Option E: Suck it up...and carry on with doing my own yard work. 

After assessing my time, lawn and budget... I settled on Option E.  Over spring break, I decided I would take on this bed of weeds that I call a lawn.  I headed out to Home Depot to arm myself with the right tools.  I was going to march in there, grab my product and head home for the spraying.  What happened instead... was I marched on into the store and became overwhelmed by all the options and choices and then stared dumbfounded at the products.  Fifteen minutes later, I wrangled the 'lawn specialist' to ask a series of dumb questions.  (I know what you're thinking.  There are such a thing as a dumb question.  Don't pretend there isn't.)  The specialist questioned me about what exactly was growing.  I then listed off... the weed with the purple flower...and the tall clumps that feather on the ends..and let's not forget the vining weed.. that has little groups of leaves.  Mmmmmm Hmmmm... florists daughter right here!  Degree in Biology... Yep.  The little weed with the purple flower.  The specialist nicely recommended some products.  I then remembered that I had taken some pics of my lawn to show my friends just how bad it was.  I thought maybe it would help to show the specialist.  After looking at my pictures for about ten seconds, the specialist said.."Whoa. Wow.  Okay, new plan.  You're going to need something much stronger and perhaps a couple rounds."  My lawn is so bad that it made a lawn specialist take a step back!  See for yourself:




















Four products..and sixty dollars later, I left ready to take on the weeds.  After spraying the lawn (and then showering because I had to use the super strength stuff) I sat and stared at my weeds.  Apparently, it's going to take more then an hour to kill these bad boys. 

Round 1: Winner... The lawn (or what's left of it under the weeds).