I grew up in Maryland and agree that mowing in the heat and humidity can be brutal. However, it makes the beer taste all the better.
I had a grandfather who planted his front yard with potatoes in downtown Saskatoon, which, admittedly, looks more like rural New York than Manhattan
I’m just curious DCnDC is this a common type of yard in your area? I’ll admit I don’t live in an area that has to conserve water so maybe it is common in your area but I have never seen a yard like that before. Not saying it is a bad thing, just not to my tastes.
Also, I spread 5 cubic yards each year just for the beds immediately around my house.
Nah. There are yards that are grass-free but filled in with lots of other plants, but I don’t know of any like mine. It’s 1-day-a-year maintenance, basically, which is completely the point.
Mowing: One of the greatest drawbacks to living in a house instead of an apartment. I felt that way long before my back started complaining.
You need one with a better seat.
Friends from Las Vegas recently visited us. Our grass impressed them; they kept wanting to walk barefoot or sit in it. Their property is xeriscaped, and they have no grass.
You and my dad, two peas in a pod.
I’m still here in Humidity Central and can attest to this. That first cold beer after finishing the job is just the greatest.
My wife and I just moved into a new house – our first actual house with a lawn. It’s a tiny lawn, and it’s mostly clover and dandelions, but it’s ours. I bought a manual push-reel mower, and I enjoy mowing as long as it’s not too hot. I can do the whole yard in about 15-20 minutes, and then a bit of weed-whacking (also manual – the kind that’s just a serrated blade).
I have a reel mower, and I like that it’s silent, that it’s simple to take out of the shed and use, that I’m not using gas or electricity, and that it was cheap and gets the job done.
An hour to an hour and a half outside in silence is doable. If I had to listen to a motor running the whole time, and be hanging onto a giant vibrating machine, I would be much less happy.
However, there are some stretches of our 1/3 acre lawn that are . . . not really well grassed. There’s this woody, fast growing and long stemmed clover kind of thing that owns the back portion, and the reel mower doesn’t do anything to it, so I have to go over those sections with a weed whacker.
But, to answer the OP more directly . . . I kinda-sorta like mowing as a concept, but our lawn is almost entirely a hill. And there are odd shapes, beds with ill-defined edges, multiple gardens and obstacles in the middle of the lawn. It’s a mess of thin rectangles, odd not-quite-squares and other shapes that really turn the job into an exhausting challenge.
If we ever move, I’m going to be particular not so much about the size of the lawn, but the shape, slope, and available storage for yard engines.
I tried the treated mulch in my flowerbeds this year. It’s usually too expensive, but Lowe’s put it on sale.
It has a herbicide to deter grass from growing.
Bermuda is one of the most persistent grasses I’ve ever seen. I had brand new weed guard fabric put down and that Bermuda punched through it within 10 days.
I treated heavily with Roundup this time and topped off with the treated mulch. It stunk for several days. So far I haven’t seen any new grass emerge.
The chemical in the treated mulch lasts about six months.
I view mowing the grass as a necessary evil. It’s a nice backdrop to the garden and needs to be fairly tidy, but it doesn’t get feverish attention.*
We have a sizable back yard which I mow on average every two weeks. I do get to see what’s going on in places I don’t visit on a daily basis, and in season can snag fruits on the fly and munch as I mow (as in the case of ripened Asian pears).
*unlike the lawn of one of my obsessed neighbors. This guy rides around mowing his lawn twice a week for what seems like hours (he must go over it at least twice per session). And this dude is a psychiatrist. There’s probably a DSM syndrome to account for his behavior.
My dad certainly did – when he could, that is (he’s not able to now). He would mow his lawn five days per week. I think he just liked being outside and having something to do.
I was mowing today and was reminded of one of the mowing “hazards” here. Frogs and toads! I do my best to avoid them but at this time of the year they are all over and for some reason they don’t always recognize riding mowers as a threat. Over by the woods the most common ones are leopard frogs. They don’t need to be in water so they can be anywhere. There are also common toads, various tree frogs and some kind of tiny little frog that is dark greenish brown and very tough to see. Down by the lake bullfrogs will sometimes travel a ways from the water, up into the yard and they are the worst about not moving until it’s too late.
Like I said, I do my best to avoid them, often getting off the mower to herd them into the weeds or water.
I vote for this option.
Nah. I’m super lazy.
Thankfully I’ve moved into a house with no front lawn or even a backyard (it’s a 3 story semi detached house) so I don’t have to do any yard work.
I’m putting off mowing as I type. It is already in the 80s and I’ve decided it can wait another day.
I live in a condo, so no yard. But I didn’t hate it as a kid. I had to do it, and my father even paid me a little. I liked the smell and seeing it become all trimmed up. But it’s not something I would have just gone out and done for fun.