The lengths I'll go to for my yard...and does it care? NO.
For the past four and a half years, I’ve been waging a war on the weeds in my yard. The weeds always win, but they seem to enjoy our little game and even pretend to die for a week or so at a time, only to come back when I’m not looking.
This year, I’ve upped my game. First off, earlier this spring I hit them with a liquid weed killer. I’ve done this before, but this time I was more determined than ever. I figured that I usually don’t apply enough, so I used more until I felt certain the weeds would be killed.
Well, I was right. I did kill those weeds. The problem is, our yard was mostly weed. And I think I killed some grass too. Now our yard, instead of being a patchy brown-green with splashes of dandelion yellow, is mostly brown, with splashes of faint green grass poking up here and there.
As a peace offering, I gave the yard some turf builder and Epsom salts and then later watered it with one of those kooky tonics I’m trying. Still brown. So I bought some grass seed, two different brands just in case one didn’t work. (It’s entirely possible that my attempts to help my yard are actually killing it even more, but I don’t know what else to do, and I can’t afford to pay someone else to deal with it.)
Yesterday morning, I put some new music on my iPod and got to work. First, I raked the grass to pull up some of the dead stuff. I remember helping rake the yard when I was little—what fun! It was my favorite lawn chore, though I hated bagging up the leaves.
Let me tell you, raking dead grass is far less fun than raking leaves. (You don’t even get to jump in a pile of it afterward. Lame.) It’s also harder. I have the blisters to prove it. Plus, I was rather embarrassed the whole time. Who rakes her yard in April? That’s just weird. I tried to go as quickly as possible. At one point, a white truck pulling a trailer honked at me and the driver waved. I waved back, then quickly spun around, embarrassed at raking my leaf-less yard and kind of disturbed that some guy was honking and waving at me.
After the scruff was raked, I spread the grass seed, raked again to help the seeds work their way downward, and watered it in with another tonic (beer + instant tea + soap – I know you are all laughing at me, but just wait until my yard is brilliant green, and see who’s laughing then! What, you don’t believe me? Yeah, okay, me neither).
At small group last night, Stewart asked if I had fun raking my yard. I showed him my blisters, then wondered how he knew I had been raking my yard. Well, turns out, Stewart had been laying sod at Sharon and Warren’s place, and as he left the neighborhood, he’d honked and waved at me. Oh. The white truck. Right. I guess I didn’t get a good look at the driver before I spun around.
We had a good laugh about that.
Now, if this grass seed sprouts and my yard starts looking good, I’ll be laughing even more.
The barren landscape...
