Yard Work Made Easy

Well this weekend I pulled out my newest lawn maintenance tool. You see, I have a problem. I want a beautiful, luscious lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood. In my opinion, that’s not my problem. The fact that I live with The Lawn Miser is.

MrP is a hater. In his opinion, we don’t live in some posh, uppity neighborhood, so there’s no pressure to have a high maintenance patch of grass. I beg to differ. I don’t want a yard that resembles the neighbors. We have a good neighbor on one side (keeps their lawn trimmed, had some flowers that perennially beautify their yard) and the other one…well that’s another story. If I tell you that he parks his boat in his front yard, having ripped out the little bush that was there at one time, does that give you a clue? No? Well, how about the fact that he mows about 3 times each summer, waiting until his dandelions reach an astonishing 10” tall before pulling out the ol’ ride on mower, dropping the blade into the dirt and almost rototilling his land. Get the picture? ‘nuf said.

So each year, I haul out the jug and water under the ruse of weed & feeding. Let me tell you, those few times a summer of piddly watering does not a patch of glorious green make.

I suppose this would be the time to mention that MrP is also not buying into my recommendation of making our yard look like a dog crapped all over it either (aka aerating). I hear the grass gods mocking me, I swear.

When I was visiting Chelsey’s a few weekends ago, her husband (we’ll call him K-dawg for today’s purposes – FYI – he’s a Yard Master Extraordinaire) introduced me to this little diddy. A thatching rake. Then he showed me her powers (I like to think of it as a girl, since she gets the hard work done). Removal of thatch that was barely visible. I mean, I couldn’t even tell there was anything there until he pulled that rake through. I had to have it.

And so the story goes…I picked one up the following Monday. $20.99 of lawn maintenance goodness. Yesterday, I got to it in the back yard. It showed me the error of my ways, thinking I’d done my lawn justice with the crappy raking job that I’d thought sufficient with my leaf rake. I realize it’s supposed to be used in the spring, but have you looked outside, peeps?! It’s just barely out of spring around here. With that, I leave you to your own lawns and humbly suggest this affordable, effective unit make it’s way into your tool collection. (And thanks, K-dawg)