Lawn mowing

It's that time of year again. We decided we'd better get out and mow the lawn before it grew out of control. Mike mows the back "lawn" (weeds) with an old gas mower someone gave us, and I mow the front lawn with the push mower.



I love this mower. I got it out this morning and was WD-40ing it in the driveway when I overheard Mike talking to our neighbor across the street.

Neighbor: Why don't you just use the gas mower for the whole lawn?
Mike: She thinks it's better to use this mower. She says it's better for the grass.
(Silence, while I could feel them both staring at me.)
Neighbor: Well, anyway... (Neighbor tactfully changed the subject away from Mike's crazy wife.)

But despite the incredulous neighbors, I stick to my choice. My mower has huge advantages:

1. It's quiet.
2. Less pollution.
3. Cheaper to buy and run.
4. Free exercise!
5. I've read that it is, indeed, better for the grass because of the way it cuts. But even if this isn't true, the other four advantages are still worth it.

You also really get to know your grass by using a push mower. It's just like biking through your neighborhood. You find out which streets really are slightly uphill and downhill, which you would never notice if you just drive around in a car. Mowing the lawn with a push mower, you find out where the grass grows thickest and fastest. I don't know if this is really an advantage (maybe it is if you're developing a scientific watering plan?) but I thought it was interesting.

The weather has been so nice this week that we've spent a lot of time outside. M. got her flower garden planted:



(Notice the nicely mowed lawn. I still haven't trimmed by the fence, though.)

We also got our garden boxes dug up, added some soil builder, and planted our spring vegetables.



A. and T. are standing behind the mound of dirt that's been there since we put grass in the front yard. It's not very high and the picture doesn't show it too well, but it's a long, curved hill with weeds growing on the top now. The original plan was to move this dirt to areas of the back yard where the ground could use some leveling. But we didn't get around to it that year, and didn't do it last year either. Today we finally decided to forget about it. The kids love it! It creates a little separated space that can be a fort, or a secret kingdom, or a house, or a cave, or Mordor. So we're just going to keep it there permanently. The funny thing is this: Now we feel like we made progress on our project list, even though all we did is cancel a project. Brains are funny!