Spring Fever

I think I am turning into a middle-aged man. No, I'm not having a midlife crisis, getting a bald spot, or having any kind of hormonal imbalance. I am, however, for the first time in my life, thinking about the lawn.


Our approach to the lawn has always been "well, it's green, isn't it?" and that has sufficed nicely.



Also, you have to understand that we have tried to be good stewards of our environment. Between the river, the kids and the greyhound, we have tried hard to avoid chemicals and fertilizers in the garden. Ward will use Brush-B-Gone to combat the rampant poison ivy that creeps out from the woods, and we do throw 5-10-5 in our planting beds annually, but that's about it.



But two weeks ago, I went out and bought $50 worth of corn gluten meal for the front lawn, where the dandelions have run amuck. You can read for yourself, but it's supposed to be a natural weed and feed. So I get out the spreader and pace the front and side lawns for half an hour. I'm afraid to put it down in the back yard. Mainly because if we kill the weeds back there we won't have anything left! We'll see if it helps any.


Then I saw a neighbor had put down a small area of sod, and I became obsessed with getting some for the area by the kitchen deck that was scoured bare last month. Since the dog leaps from that area onto the deck, there's no way we have gotten grass seed to take hold. In case you were wondering, this is what $40 worth of sod looks like:






Also, don't you love my setup to keep the dog and the girls off the new sod?

So that's one of the things we've been up to. I'll post more this week.