Did you ever really ponder the obsession we have with our lawns? We spend countless hours maintaining and caring for them. We compare ours with our neighbors. We spend lots of money year round to water, feed, landscape and mow! This for grass that doesn’t attract birds, butterflies or bees. Instead it practically invites grubs, red ants and sod worms. It also can be compared to a hormonal female regarding temperature……it’s down right temperamental!
Spring arrives and we fertilize the grass and poison any other weed or flower that should even think to propagate. We have a love/hate relationship with rain. We like the rain to water and make the grass grow so it doesn’t turn brown and die but we hate when it grows so much that we have to mow and trim. Then we bag the lawn trimmings and put them at the side of the curb where we pay someone to come and remove the bags. Back in the day, the cut grass was raked and used to feed the animals on the farm and many other creative uses. Sometimes the animals were the actual trimmers of the lawn and they would graze, fertilize and keep it thriving. I don’t think you will see that happening too much in our local neighborhoods today.
HOAs play a huge roll in overseeing that the neighborhood complies with the lawn maintenance written up in their covenants and restrictions. You will get fined if your lawn is not maintained and your yard is looking shabby. I remember hearing a story about a single woman who moved into a home in a neighborhood that had strict lawn maintenance rules. She obviously never had a copy of the C&R or perhaps didn’t read it if she did have a copy. At any rate, her lawn was filled with weeds, dandelions and brown patches of grass. A couple of men in the neighborhood decided to knock on her door and suggest that the lawn care company that they used would be happy to give her an estimate for her lawn. She woke up one morning and found that another neighbor had left a bag of Weed N Feed at her front door. She thought that her neighbors were so nice in trying to help her! If someone left a case of NutriSystem entrees at my door I wouldn’t see the upside!
