fine whine

The weather this summer has been great for weeds*, and not so great for grass. Our front and back yards were pretty patchy before, but the dead spots keep appearing and, well, growing. I've bought two bags now of grass seed and even tried out the special mix with the blue mulch mixed in, and the grass still looks pretty bad. The spray-on weed & feed I used had much better results than the dry stuff I'd spread before, and I think I'll henceforth be buying the liquid instead, since it actually seemed to do something. But that was one minor success among a long string of failures.

Everytime I mow the grass with my cordless electric mower, the blade of which I sharpened today for the first time with a brand-new file, I can't help but think that such a nice piece of grass-cutting technology deserves better grass to be cutting. Even our push mowers far outclas the grass they (ably) cut. I'd find it more appropriate to be mowing with an old gas-and-oil belching mower that's all rusted, and perhaps missing a wheel.

On the other hand, it would be really fun (and likely noisy) to try out a riding mower. And it would be overkill, though that doesn't stop the guy who is paid to mow several lawns on my street with his rotating assortment of ride-on mowers. I'd like to ask him to do ours sometime just to see how much he'd laugh, except that his mowers are so loud he'd probably not hear me.

* This year's weed crop doesn't include poison ivy, surprisingly and thankfully. I've killed two plants and seen no others. This is fine with me.