Sunday, July 11, 2010

Suburban Shadenfreude...

Just finished mowing my lawn a little while ago. It's been so dry and hot lately that I've gone three weeks since the last mow - and it still wasn't that bad. When I was mowing the backyard, I was struck by the contrast between my neighbor's yard and mine - my neighbor is one of those guys that has to have a lush, green carpet of perfectly manicured grass, spending hours fertilizing, weeding. cutting, and raking his lawn every week.

Well, see my comment about the weather. Right now, his lawn is browner than mine. I think it's because he spends so much time caring for his lawn that it has come to depend on him, whereas my lawn has been neglected so long it has learned to fend for itself. In any case, I find it supremely ironic that I've done a quick mow once or twice a month and he obsesses weekly, and the end result is practically indistinguishable.

Life's lessons are learned hard in the 'burbs, yo.

That is all.

6 comments:

DaddyBear said...

If it wasn't for chick weed, crab grass, and dandilions, I wouldn't have much of a lawn at all.

Old NFO said...

LOL- THAT is 'one' of the good things about living in an apt... Somebody ELSE does that and I don't have to.

Hat Trick said...

He probably over-fertilized. Lawn grasses don't do well with lots of nutrients and no water.

Borepatch said...

Your neighbor has a "welfare lawn". You have a "get a job, dang it" lawn.

Jim said...

My lovely mate Iris, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, ordered up what was supposed to have been "topsoil".

Of course, the idom for that in Ireland would be "garden soil", as what we call a "yard", they refer to as "the garden".

Needless to say, the dump truck dropped off four yards of rich, dark, bark mulch, which was promptly spread, as ordered.

Y'know, the tannic acids in bark mulch are very effective at inhibiting the growth of grasses, right?

We've raked most of it up out of the lawn, and will give the YARD a healthy covering of sandy loam in the winter.

Personally, I'd pave it and paint it green, but I'm vetoed on that, it seems.


Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Dixie said...

You lucky, lucky man. I have to mow three acres, twice a week. No fertilize, no special treatment... it just grows.