Herban Sprawl

Dry weather has set in here in The Star City. Yesterday I ran up the water bill with a brand new giant, economy-sized oscillating sprinkler in the back. The front needs it today, but first I have arranged a play date with the Neuton mower. Okay, here is my plug for the greatest mower of all time.

I hate gasoline powered mowers. They get to be the devil to start, they require all kinds of maintenance, and then you have to drain them for the winter. They are also noisy and emit pollution. If I want Briggs & Stratton decibels, I have my black and white charmer, Charlie at five in the morning! A few years ago, after our dear Mr. Johnson passed, we had Lawn Lady. The first year was okay, the second was a disaster. I decided to investigate this new mower I had seen in the gardening magazines.

I lucked into a pre-season online deal and popped for the Neuton, and even though the blade on my early model is small, it really doesn’t matter. I love this machine. I don’t like the trimmer attachment, but that’s okay. Black and Decker came out with a cheap battery powered trimmer and I’m happy with it. When it croaks, I’ll get the new Neuton hand-held trimmer. The mower, however, is the bee’s knees. I keep a pair of batteries charged. That way I can alternate, and I have gotten to the point where I only need most of one battery to do both front and back.

Those who have seen the back understand why, in spite of the small amount of real estate, it is a chore to mow. It’s steep. It requires healthy ankles and knees, not to mention good upper body strength to shove the mower into tough corners. This year, I have been blessed with all of the above, so I’m getting a weekly workout!

Anyway, Big Kitty watered in my absence, but there were plants that got neglected because he’s not one to check for details. He doesn’t do garden. He does computer. Today I will see if some goodies have revived. I’m hoping for the best. If not, well, c’est la vie.

Now it is time for the garden project to swing into post-convention scheduling. I have more plans to execute, and in order to dig, I have to water thoroughly because this clay is brick-hard. That is the issue that has dogged my efforts all these years. That is the reason I about killed myself digging up those little weeds with the red stems before I left! I checked the prairie garden last night and saw that I did a better job than I thought. I’m going to run the sprinkler on it later on and hopefully I can eradicate the last of those little interlopers.

Next up is a trip to the mulch place for a truckload of hard work. If I can get things mulched before SUUSI, I will consider this gardening season a genuine success. Everything after the heavy-duty mulching will be gravy. Oh, sure, I will still be out there with the Japanese weeder, doing damage to errant pokeweed, locust, paper mulberry and other assorted uninvited miseries, but mulch is what makes the garden look better, feel better and  grow better. The hostas need it badly, and there, it pays to be careful. They also need heavy duty slug control!

And so it goes. It’s good to be home.