Did you give up mowing lawns forever based on that one experience?
My stepson related a similar story once. He left out the part about he didn't return to mow until the next day. And the person who mowed was long gone when he arrived.
Not implying you didn't make doing the job a priority. That, however, has been a common them for my stepson.
Yeah true, mowing is a great mental break and basically just a walk. I probably ruin the relaxation with all the trimming, raking, planting, weeding etc afterwards.
When we bought a home, mowing the lawn became my responsibility. I knew I could look at it as a chore that needs to be done but eventually a task that annoys me and could make me bitter about the whole thing.
So I decided to learn all I could about lawn maintenance, which tools I need, and how to use them. And it became a point of pride for me and a challenge rather than a chore.
So mowing the lawn, the very act of it, is now a joy and something I look forward to. All my work (de-thatching, aerating, seeding, fertilizing, watering, pH balancing, edging, etc) pays off when I mow the lawn now and it makes mowing something I look forward to and never have to be bothered to do.
It was a shabby lawn when I took it over and now it’s a thick, lush carpet that I enjoy very much.
And then your neighborhood association would fine you or try to make your life a living hell until you fell into line and mowed it like a good boy. For people that love to obsess over their own lawns they REALLY love to obsess over their neighbor's lawns.
Our youngest lamented the lack of a front lawn to lay on. But I honestly don't believe that between the damp and the dog walkers she would have actually done the activities she had in her head.
You have to mow it. You have to mow it every week. You have to mow it every week even if you're tired, or sick, or it's hot, or it's cold, or it's rainy, or your friends are playing a game, or you had a sleepover. No excuses, no exceptions. You can't mow it too early in the morning, or too late in the evening. You can't stop halfway through and do the rest later (back yard/front yard perhaps, but not half of the front yard). The grass does not care what your reasons are. It just cares that you didn't mow it. If you don't, it punishes you. Sometimes the neighbors do, too.
In theory they understand this, in practice there are plenty of other activities that result in a litany of renegotiations. Grass. Doesn't. Care.
Maybe I have slow growing grass. I mow every three weeks, and I feel like my neighbors do it every two. I thought weekly mowing was something mostly only seen in fictional portrayals of American fathers.
Even with the fairly flat and modestly-sized parcel of property that I keep mowed around the house, it's just one of those tasks that I don't care to do and which needs to be done on a schedule. Some people find fairly mindless outdoor chores a good excuse to get out of the house but I don't generally speaking.
It's not inexpensive to have your lawn cut and the quality isn't always to my liking. But I've found the tradeoff to be worthwhile.
Not having to take care of a home sounds great. I can't imagine the Sisyphean task of mowing a lawn every weekend. At least raking leaves can be a peaceful thing - lour mowers can't be peaceful!
As a child, I used to voluntarily go around my neighborhood asking people if I could mow their lawn during the summer. In the fall, I'd offer to rake their leaves. Should I have been stopped?
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