Grass Lawn

We have a pretty large yard, a good portion of which is still grass.  I use the word grass loosely, since the main body of the grass is Bermuda (see previous rants, I mean posts about Devil's grass), but really most of the lawn is made up of weeds.  This year, I decided to do something about the grass because it looks particularly ratty.  There are multiple types of weeds in there, along with a few bare patches where the fire ants were particularly invasive. The obvious answer to our problem was to hire a lawn service.  So, I had two come out to give us estimates.

Both companies came out to the house and looked at the lawn, but neither actually took the time to come talk to us about the lawn to find out what we wanted.  These were the two highest rated companies in the area, and the only two which were really recommended by others.  Hmmmm.

Each lawn service left a list of things they would do for the yard (weed and feed, pre-emergent, etc.), along with a month by month timeline in which they would perform our lawn maintenance. Their lists were identical, so I popped out to the garage and looked at the bags of stuff we had out there from when my brother helped landscape the property.  Check it out!  We had pre-emergent, weed and feed, lime, and every other thing listed on the timeline from the lawn service companies.  Hooray!  We also have the spreader tool to use, which is so much easier than trying to evenly distribute by hand.

So, instead of paying 40-ish dollars each month for a lawn service, we're going do-it-yourself for free.  We have loads more time than money these days, so it just made more sense.  March is already done (it took no more than 15 minutes) and we have our list up for the next few months. Of course, the real issue was never the money or the service, but was instead the crappy looking lawn.  Wish us luck as we fight the good fight to make the parts of lawn that are still lawn look green, rich and, well, grassy.  If it doesn't work out, I may end up calling the yard service.

The In and Out Game

For years, our various dogs have played the in and out game. You know the one... we put them out, they want back in. We let them in, they want to be out. It is a favorite of theirs and can go on indefinitely.

Up until now, I thought this was an animal game only. But this year, our potted plants are joining in the fun.  On a beautiful spring day, they want to be alive and well watered, so I let them out of the garage and tell them to go play in the sun, while I bathe their winter hardened roots with water.  In the evening, they are worried about frost and want to come back in. But by noon the next day, when the sun is shining and the breeze is soft, out they want to go again.   Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to pick them up and carry them (or pull them along like an ungainly child in a wagon)., but there you have it. Who knew that these silly houseplants would be needier than a pet?

We have lots of potted plants on the front and back patios. Most of them are semi-tropical, so they have to come inside every winter. Last Wednesday  was a beautiful spring day, which was the perfect day to start these plants on their way out of dormancy. We realized, while pulling them out of the garage, that many of them were terribly root bound. Good thing we just bought three bags of potting soil!

Brian and I started with the unidentified tree. It took quite a bit of cajoling on our part to pull that giant root ball from its pot. Once it was out, Brian worked on separating the roots, while I tried to water it into submission. After a long struggle, we succeeded in giving it some breathing space and getting it replanted. After that, we repotted several others, including a Norfolk pine and an Umbrella plant, along with a geranium and some unidentified green leafy house plant things.

After the repotting, we placed them out, hoping to leave them there for awhile. But no, there was a frost warning, so back in they went. In and out. In and out. Tonight they are staying outside. At 50 degrees and drizzling, I think they can just man up and stay there.

Oak Trees

Did you know that there are over 15 kinds of oak trees in the state of Georgia? Of those, the ones in my yard are of the kind that drop their top leaves in the fall, the middle leaves in the winter, and the bottom giant skirt of leaves only when new leaves come to push them out. Which means that raking is an endless bundle of joy and fun from October through the end of March.

Over the last 3 days, we've raked, pulled, vacuumed and swept leaves out of their winter hiding places and added them to the huge pile of leaves next to our compost cage. The compost is held in a 4 foot cube of hardware cloth, 1/2 inch mesh, with an open bottom and top. The pile of leaves next to it is at least 3 times the size of the cage and taunts the cage and its inability to hold the leaves. Really, they are vile.

Of course, the new leaves haven't started to push the old leaves off the trees, yet.  I expect it will happen in the next three weeks.  Just in time to get leaves stuck in all the new spring growth around the yard.

Dumb old oak trees.