“A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.”
The morning is warm but cloudy. Rain is a possibility, but I won’t mind because we haven’t had much rain lately. A while back we had days of rain then it stopped, plugged by an unseen hand. Gracie and I have a couple of errands later including our first stop at the garden center. I have a list of flowers I hope to add to the front garden, and I know what herbs and veggies I want.
When I was a kid, I never thought flowers would become important to me. My father and his pansies were all I knew. Few of the yards around us had gardens either because my neighborhood was filled with lawn people. A green, lush, beautiful lawn was a status symbol. It had to be mowed just right and frequently watered. On hot days we’d run through the sprinkler which sort of annoyed my dad. It wasn’t good for his lawn to have us tamp it down as we ran. The neighbor behind us was a radical lawn lady. Even though we shared a hill, she never wanted us walking on the grass. She’d yell from her kitchen window if we dared pass the line of demarcation between her part of the hill and ours. It wasn’t a real line, but it was the visual boundary between her yard and ours, between a lush lawn and just grass. My father didn’t care about that hill. It was his front lawn which he tended lovingly.
When my parents came to visit, my dad brought all his lawn tools including his mower. My mother and I would go shopping, and my dad would tend my yard. He’d mow and rake the grass then trim the bushes. He’d even venture into my wild backyard and mow the tall grass, reminiscent more of a field than a lawn. I think my neighbors were probably cheering as I never mowed until I figured the grass was high enough to make it worth my while. When my mother and I would get home, my dad would give us the grand tour of all he’d done. The difference was amazing. He always made my front yard looked cared for and loved. That was his gift to me, one he enjoyed giving. I loved him even more for it.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: flowers, front yard, garden center, green, herbs veggies, lawns, lush grass, maybe rain, mowing, my dad and his mower, pansies, Shopping, trim bushes, trimming, waram day, wild backyard
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 5, 2015 at 12:07 pm
The Prince and I worked.
Mrs MDH arrived with a gaggle of rose bushes and lilac and made immediate demands upon the men folk that they be installed. Out we went to do battle with tree roots, sprinklers and lighting systems. The Prince wielded a mean hoe and I was armed with a spade.
Today the skies have opened and the new plantings are benefiting from a steady rain.
The Prince and I get stuff done.
May 5, 2015 at 12:34 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Mrs. MDH is quite lucky to have men folk like you and The Prince to wield the digging implements with such precision and to plant her roses and lilacs.
Her timing, with the rain coming, was quite serendipitous.
May 5, 2015 at 1:54 pm
My neighbor is a lawn guy and I’m a flower guy. I never care especially much about the lawn to be honest, I mow it and that’s it. I think he reads a bedtime story for his every night 🙂 Still, my lawn look much better than his becayse I have very little moss in mine and his is full of it 🙂 Every spring he stands there watching my lawn and says, how can Your lawn be so fine 🙂
He has flowers though, they are self sown and ftom my garden and he always look surprised when they turn up in his lawn 🙂 It looks like his girlfriend stops him from mowing them down so who knows, there might even turn up a flower bedin his garden one day 🙂
Rainy and windy here and it will blow strong for several days and the rain will come and go. They had predicted high temperatures from today but that seems never to happen 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 5, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Christer,
My lawn is right in front and is a good size one. If I had a rotten lawn, it would be noticed as most of the houses around me(except for the rental) have nice lawns. The garden too is in front so it has to be pretty so passersby will think it wonderful.
My mother loved wild flowers and my father could never clear them from their yard.
The day goes from sunny to cloudy to dark, but no rain as yet. We do need some so I’m hoping.
Have a wonderful evening!
May 5, 2015 at 3:29 pm
The weeds, or wildflowers as they also are known as 🙂 thrives in my garden. I allow them to grow there as long as they don’t kill tye plants I’ve planted there 🙂 The front part of the garden can’t be seen from the road because of the high lilac hedge 🙂
Hevy thunder is predicted for the night, I like thunder but wouldn’t mind if it missed us so I get a good nights sleep.
May 5, 2015 at 3:35 pm
There are wildflower areas along the highways. They all have signs which say wildflower garden, don’t mow. They gardens have so many lovely flowers in a variety of colors.
I love thunder also. Most times I sleep soundly enough I don’t hear it. Neither the cats or Gracie are afraid of it. One of my dogs was, and I always felt so bad for her. Nothing, no amount of comfort, helped.
May 5, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Back home. Phew. Train strike number eight, it will last until Sunday.
I mowed my father’s lawn for several years. We both knew that it wasn’t about the lawn but just an excuse not to lose contact at all.
May 5, 2015 at 7:55 pm
Birgit,
Do any of the strikes have a meaningful resolution?
My father did not allow his lawn to be cut by anyone but him. It had to do with the lines left by the mower, a hand mower, always a hand mower.
May 5, 2015 at 8:45 pm
Nope. Neither side moves, the strikes can go on forever. In theory I’m glad we still have strong unions and I don’t mind a strike day or two but… It’s enough!
May 5, 2015 at 9:05 pm
Birgit,
How long before they take the hint nothing will happen?
May 6, 2015 at 8:41 am
This strike game can go on until no one needs trains anymore. No, seriously, it’s a severe economical damage which counts more in this country than annoyed passengers. So far they can’t even agree on a mediator. A few trains with non-union train drivers are still running so with luck and patience I will reach the next town later and a friend will take me back home by car.
May 6, 2015 at 12:18 pm
Birgit,
This winter the subway system, the T, was down several times because of the amount of snow on the tracks. People were irate that there wasn’t a plan in play which would keep the T running. Guys with shovels were trying to clear the tracks. I can’t imagine what no trains would do to Boston and the outrage which would follow.
May 5, 2015 at 7:52 pm
My father was also a lawn guy. It must have been a 50s thing. When he owned a house he took tremendous pride in having a carpet of thick green grass. Every Saturday morning from April through October he would mow, edge, water, fertilize and trim. After my mother passed away he sold the house and lived the rest of his life in apartments or a condo where someone else did the gardening. I hated doing yard work and eventually turned it over to a landscape company. I have a purple thumb and can kill a plant or a lawn by just watering. In the early 80s woman friends would give me house plants for my small apartment. I can kill a house plant within a month. Either I would water them too much or not enough. I eventually switched over to fake plants. I even managed to kill a cactus.
Nice day with 80 as a high. The rain is off to the west and should spread east tonight.
May 5, 2015 at 8:00 pm
Bob,
I think we have come full circle about people and their lawns. Nobody wants the worst lawn in the neighborhood. My landscaper lives next door and he does 5 houses including his own on my small street so we have great looking lawns. I used to mow it myself, but I always hated it. I did it out of a sense of obligation.
I have plants which were given during my housewarming 33 years ago. I feel guilty of a plants dies.
Great day today-cloudy but still around 70˚, and it will be the same all week.
May 5, 2015 at 8:51 pm
Hi Kat,
My lawn is mostly green and most of that is grass. A lot of it is other things like pansies, violets, hawkweed and dandelions. There are even chives growing in one part of it.
Usually I hire someone to mow but last year’s person killed the grass in my back yard by using one of the disk ride-on mowers. Every time he did a zero radius turn it dug up the soil and made huge gouges in the newly seeded grass which never recovered. Maybe I will just let it do its own thing this year. I can handle mowing the side yard myself, I think.
Today was lovely even though it was very heavily cloudy for most of the day. I kept expecting it to rain but it didn’t and finally the sun came out.
Enjoy the evening.
May 5, 2015 at 9:09 pm
Hi Caryn,
I have moss on one side. My neighbor, the landscaper, says it doesn’t get strong enough sun in the morning and the pine branch is in the way in the afternoon. I swear he just wants to take down more of my pines.
I used to have horrible allergies to grass mold, and that was the perfect reason not to mow. Now it is everything else like when to fertilize, aerate, lime and all the rest of the lawn stuff I don’t know.
It was the same here. At one point it was so dark I thought it would rain but it didn’t.
Have a nice evening!