Summer = lawn care

Two weeks ago, and my grass sitting about 7 inches tall, I decided it was time to take the right of passage and buy my first lawn mower. I headed out to the local Lowe's [partly because we don't have a Home Depot close by] and after doing all my research purchased my first lawn mower. Needless to say the excitement was overwhelming! I couldn't wait to get home and start a summer of maintaining "the perfect lawn!" Knowing that lawn care requires meticulous care week after week, I quickly learned that the acuqiring of a perfect lawn is not a sprint but a marathon, which I believe is what most of life boils down to.

Quickly learning that only cutting my lawn will not generate the results I wanted, I resorted to buying a weed eater, fertilizer and spreader. Not knowing what fertilizers do what type of fertilizing, which meant more research, I am proud to announce I'm on the Scott's plan. It's great! If you are wondering where to begin as a newbie or want to revitalize your lawn, check out Scott's website they have a ton of useful information to become a proper lawn guy. I know this will be hard to believe, but after the first week of using my new Scott's plan, and just cutting my lawn, I have already received comments about how green my lawn is looking! Needless to say this left me with a weird sense of pride as a newbie.

I'm looking forward to the countless hours outside working in the yard. The sense of pride I get is a small reminder of working hard day after day and week after week to reach the goals I have for life in general. I know these are lessons I have learned from other places of life, but mowing weekly, sometimes twice a week, is a gentle reminder of life as a series of moments put together to create something worthy, and not just one big defining moment.

The current problem, which is what every lawn guy experiences, are dandelions. It's amazing how much information is on the interweb to help newbies like me. One you need to check out is lifeandlawns.com [I put the link under Lawns on my I Like... part of this blog]. After all the research, and countless of ways to deal with dandelions I learned a few tricks...

1. People use dandelions in salads. This was totally surprising to me. Apparently they are high with Vitamin A.
2. Chemical's are bad and not environmental friendly. Duh!
3. A herbicide vinegar solution is recommended as a earth friendly way to deal with dandelions.
4. Above all these practical ways to rid your lawn of dandelions, the old fashioned college try is best. That's right, the only real solution is to pull the weeds by hand. I guess this is another reminder about working hard.

This is a new and pleasant surprise to this blog for me. I never thought I would be a lawn guy...let alone write about it...but it's fun and I'm look forward to posting a photo one day of "A worthy lawn" so all the world can enjoy my hard work!