I fought the lawn and.. the lawn won!

Ding! Ding!  Round 2
Winner: The Lawn

Reminder:  I've sprayed the weeds as directed by the ever helpful Home Depot specialist and waited two days before mowing.  I'm not really sure if my spraying technique was flawed or those weeds popped up after spraying.  Either way, they aren't all dead.  Boo!

The moment I've been dreading is finally here.  It's time to tackle the backyard.  Since I haven't pulled out the lawnmower since last year, there is always that moment of... is it going to start?  I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe but I might not keep the best care of my lawnmower.  It's not that I don't want to pamper my lawnmower, I'm just not fully aware of how to do it.  In my hectic schedule, it hasn't been top priority for me to learn.  Feel free to school me on mower pampering.  After pulling the mower out, I remembered that I needed to go get 'new' gas.  (Yes, I realize there are worse things then driving to the gas station to get some gas; however, if you don't want to do the activity, it seems like a mountain!)

Pulled out mower: Check!
Bought new gas: Check!
Checked the oil: A little low, but I'm going for it! 

To my surprise, the lawn mower started right up.  Let the mowing begin!  It was a slow start to say the least.  Why exactly are weeds just so wet again?  It was a slow process of forward 12".. back 6"....  Why you ask?  Because the weeds were that high and that wet!  I know.  Perhaps I should have jumped on this lawn mowing thing before today.  How was I suppose to know that it was going to rain all week and the weeds would shoot up ten feet?!?  And realize in advance I would have almost every night booked the following week!?  Either way, I'm now dealing with it.  After mowing for over an hour, I came upon a hidden stick.  You have to love the first mow of the season.  There are all these little hidden surprises underneath.  In fairness, I did go through the lawn and try to pick up the sticks, etc.  Apparently a couple got away from me and found their way into the mower!  After running over the third little surprise, the mower stopped and smoked a little.  I do realize that smoke is never a good sign.  I looked over the lawnmower and didn't see anything too huge; however, it didn't start back up.  I guess my mowing is done for now!  And only half of the backyard is finished.  The lawn is the winner. 

Ding! Ding! Round 3
Winner: Me!

After letting the mower sit all night, I added more gas and more oil.  Strangely, I had some oil in my garage.  Go me!  The mower started right up.  So I began again with the 12" forward... 6" back technique.  That's what I get for waiting so long!  Don't believe me?  Take a look at what I was up against! (See picture to the left!)

Please don't share this picture with my dad.  I've had the lawn mowing lecture before!



In addition, Bella thought she would help me out with the mowing.  She so nicely barked at the vicious lawnmower and save me from it.  Ever try to move through too tall weeds and grass while a dog barks at you the entire time?  It just makes a delightful task oh so much more fun!  Here is a picture of Bella 'protecting' me: (See picture just above to the right!)

Needless to say, after mowing another hour I have officially finished the backyard!  Finally I'm the winner!

Ding! Ding! Round 4
Winner: The Lawn

Now that I have finished the backyard, I'm moving on to the front yard!  After adding more gas, I started back up quickly finishing the little side strip next to the garage.  I'm sure my neighbor fully appreciated me not bagging my clippings and my leaf mulching technique.  The lady at home depot did tell me to mulch the clippings back on after spraying.  I was just following orders!

Next I moved over to the main part of the yard.  I like to play this game while mowing the yard called Pattern Making!  I mow in different patterns trying to see what kind of fun effects I can produce.  I started off with the shrinking square pattern.  I made it around three sides before the mower began to smoke again!  What is it?  The front lawn isn't even that high!  Of course, I took this as a clear sign that lawn mowing was done for Sunday.  I pushed it back into the backyard and took the dogs for a walk instead.  I hope my neighbors like the giant C I mowed into my lawn!

For those of you who haven't been keeping track, let me help you out.  The Lawn: 3 Me: 1  It looks like the Odds are not ever in my favor on this issue! 

And what was Oliver doing during this entire time: (See picture to the right again!)  The mower is just too darn noisey for Oliver Bowser.  Instead he just watches out the window at me messing with his backyard.  The moment I'm finished he rushes out to inspect!

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).