In my garden journal entry for today, I can write that I mowed the lawn for the first time this season. The lawn crisis has passed.
No, I did not get my mower back from its spring tune-up. They still have it. No, I did not borrow a mower, as no one I knew well enough to ask if I could borrow their mower had one that was in working order. No, I did not steal a mower!
I bought a spare mower. Not just any spare. A near bottom of the line basic push mower spare. Within 10 minutes of bringing it home, I had unboxed it, straightened out the handle, added the oil, added the gas, and set about mowing the front lawn.
Guess what? This spare isn’t like my other mower. My other mower is a self-propelled, self-pacing mower. You push down on the handle and it purrs along at your walking pace. You merely guide it as it goes forward under its own power. The spare mower doesn’t go anywhere unless you actually push it forward, with your own strength. I had forgotten what it was like to actually push a push mower.
I mowed both the front yard and the back yard. Wasn’t it too wet to mow, with those morning thunderstorms and down pours, you ask? Well, yes, under normal conditions, it was too wet. But it was too tall not to mow it. So, I mowed because tall grass overrides wet ground. The good news is that the sound of my feet squishing through the wet lawn was drowned out by the sound of the mower and it was never actually raining while I was mowing.
I set the mower on its highest setting, and still in some places I was cutting off nearly six inches of grass. I am not exaggerating. This early warm spring has caused the grass to grow at near warp-speed.
I still expect to get my regular mower back Monday. And I’ll pay almost as much for its tune up as I did for the spare mower. But I do love my regular mower, even more so now that I have a spare mower, so it is worth it to keep it in top running condition.
When I do get my mower back, I’ll mow the grass again, this time on its normal setting, which is one notch lower than the highest setting. Then if the grass gets out of control (again), I can mow at the highest setting to get caught up.
But I hope to keep up with the lawn for the rest of the season and not have to mow again at the highest setting. And I hope that I only sparingly need to use the spare mower because the muscles in my arms, back, and legs are sore now from pushing it. I’m not sure, come morning, that I’ll be able to move.
And I hope that I’m not the only gardener who likes to mow her lawn and gets all cranky if she can’t mow it when it needs to be cut. Please tell me I’m not the only one!
I don’t know that I get all “cranky” about that, but it sure is nice to see the lawn freshly mowed and groomed- very peaceful.
With all the wetness I’m surprised you didn’t stall out…but maybe I have problems because I can let it get *really* long sometimes.
I know what you mean about self-propelled- makes life so much easier.
Sometimes I don’t enjoy mowing, but most of the time I really do. I enjoy watching how each part of the gaeden starts looking better as I go along. It almost feels like painting a canvass.
By the way, my grass down here in Houston has greened up well, but hasn’t really started growing. It reained a lot this weekennd, so i expect it to grow a lot this coming week. I’m glad my mower is working. 🙂
I know now that your lawn is mowed you will be able to rest tonight. I complained to my husband today that the neighbors beat us by mowing their lawn today. He likes to mow it, so I didn’t say much, but if he doesn’t get to it tomorrow, I am on it!
By the way, we didn’t get a drop of rain today, but it sounds like it is starting to rain out right now. That’s my kind of weather, rain at night so I can be in the garden during the day!
I do like the little bit of pathetic lawn I have to be cut and look as good as it can (I am just not a good lawn person…my grass looks nothing like your beautiful lawn!). I really liked to mow the lawn when the kids were little (and we had more grass) and I could say “go inside and ask your father… I can’t hear you”.
Having a spare sounds like a good idea if you have space to keep it.
Carol, I rather enjoy mowing, but all we’ve ever owned is a push-mower. I tried to vacuum at my mom’s house, using her self-propelled model and just hated it, so the idea of a mower that would move on its own in a similar way doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
There’s a self-propelled vacuum? Who knew? But Carol, I wouldn’t be without my self-propelled mower. I do think a back-up mower of any type is a good idea, when we gotta mow, we gotta mow! I plan to remove the blade from mine tomorrow and take it to Big Tool Box where they sharpen it while you wait. I will then attempt to change the oil and then…look out, lawn!
Yes, you are the only one, sorry!:-)
Personally I don’t care for mowing at all, and am glad that my assistant is kind enough to do it for me most of the time.
There used to be so much grass in my garden that it took me 3 hours to mowe it all, twice a week. That was enough to put me of mowing for the rest of my life.
Our grass hasn’t even started greening up yet. Do you get in trouble with your homeowner’s association if you don’t keep your grass trimmed? I am not the one who cuts the grass at our place, but when it does get long I don’t get too bent out of shape. At four inches I start hinting . . .
Carol much as I love visiting your blog most days, I am really glad we are not neighbors.You would quickly come to dislike us. This is a more relaxed area. I could never live where there are strict regulations. Sometimes I go away and the lawn does not get mowed. Sometimes in Spring I wait until May to mow. I like the grass to be long enough to lay over and ripple in the wind.
As for mowing we do not even have a power mower. Ours is like the pictures in the book ‘A gardener’s year’ by Capek. It is people powered. No gas or electic just a good cup of coffee and maybe oatmeal before heading out there.
Oh yes, the assistant/husband does mow quite often…LOL…but he requires filling with a good breakfast first.
Ilona… I agree, a freshly mowed lawn looks very peaceful.
Gary… I like how you described mowing like painting a canvas. It does give a whole new look to the rest of the gardens.
Leslie… You are right, the sound of the mower blocks out all else, and so lawn mowing is a nice escape.
Annie… I’ve tried the self-propelled vacuum cleaners and hate them, too. My self-propelled mower is nothing like that! It is wonderful.
Lost Roses… Do show us your lawn after you’ve cut it for the first time!
Yolanda Elizabet… your assistant is a keeper!
Kathy… Our homeowner’s association has so far only warned one neighbor about their lawn. I don’t plan to get to the point where they have to warn me!
Gloria… I’d love to be your neighbor, because you’d help me remove most of the lawn and plant more flower beds, wouldn’t you? Then I’d have just enough lawn to get a small people-powered reel mower!
Thanks all for the comments.
Glad to hear you got it mowed and a second mower is nice to have around. I am pretty picky about how the yard is mowed. Outside of my husband and myself no one touches this yard. A couple of years ago, we had no choice but to have someone mow ours once when we were gone for two weeks. Come to think of it, CRANKY is probably the stage I get to, if the yard is in desperate need of mowing. I just hate mowing it when it’s too tall.