Today, March 29th, I mowed my yard for the first time this year. It needed it. There was a slight mist of rain in the air, but I thought “I’m doing this!” What Mow-tavated me was that for the last 34 years that I have lived here, my next door neighbor would always mow his yard first. Not just in the beginning of the season, but every week. He had to be the first. And today, his lawn was not yet mowed.
Unfortunately, this great neighbor (great with everything but lawncare, in which he had to beat me with) passed away several years ago. I miss him. But I don’t miss, is what I suspect was in his will…that his full grown daughters would continue to mow his lawn before me. It still seems that I have to keep up with the Joneses. Today would be different.
I barely had time to admire my newly mowed yard, when a car pulled up next to my house, and sure as heck, my neighbor’s daughter ran to the garage and started mowing. I smiled at her, and she unhappily waved back. She shouted that at her house, several towns away, it was raining even harder, and she thought the rain was here first. 34 years it took for me to mow first…
So tonight to celebrate, I am settling down with the book “Planning the Home Grounds” by Cecile Hulse Matschat, published in 1937.
There is a great chapter on lawns, and how to take care of them, along with how to accessorize a lawn with a garden. This is a great old fashioned book, ninety years old, and a good read. I made the mistake of googling the author, Cecile Hulse Matschat. It turns out that she was a geographer and a botanist.
Matschat wrote a book in 1938 about the Suwanee River, which runs through Georgia and Florida. She won awards with that book. She also wrote a book in 1939 about exploring in South and Central America. Both sounded very interesting, and so I have researched and ordered an original copy of each. I look forward to their arrival, and to read them. I have a good collection of women explorers and leaders, that I collect to remind my daughter and five granddaughters of what they can achieve.
While sitting in my chair tonight, I also had picked to read, this huge hardback book (with an antitheft cover) “The Ortho Problem Solver” by Ortho Information Products, published in 1989. This book will help you with any houseplant, lawn care, annuals, perennials, bulbs, trees and shrubs, fruit and nut trees, weeds, plant diseases, insects, animal pests, and soil problems that you could possibly come across.
There are literally thousands of photographs to help diagnose issues, and treat your yard. This 1052 page reference guide was printed by Ortho to be attached to a stand in the Ortho product section of the big box store that I worked at years ago. I took the sales rep to lunch one day, and discussed what would happen if that book disappeared. He didn’t batt an eye, just wrote a report that it had come up missing, and another was ordered.
Now-a-days, one can buy softcover books for home use. It is pretty common. This book though, I have used every year for one question or another. Tonight, I am looking up the circular spots made by dogs (my dog) piddling on front yard. I now know what to do to repair the yard.
After all was read and planned, I just thought back on the day. While pleased that I for the first time in over three decades, was able by a mere hour or two in a light drizzle, mow my yard first, I also thought back that both my neighbor and I have kept up our yards rather well. Mowing for the first time in the spring on the same day, really cemented the commitment we share with our homes and yards.
The first mowing of the year also begins the thought process of summer honey-do lists that my wife will now present me with. From today to the end of fall, I will be tasked with immense obligations. Already there is: paint the back side of the house; repair/replace seawall block around fountain and trees; remove stump in back yard; add ten bags of soil to garden; buy 35 bags of mulch (when on sales) for along lake and around trees. The list is endless.
Perhaps I should have thought through mowing the lawn this morning…I’m feeling a little Mow-lancholy.
Thanks for reading.
Librarytomes 