Because It Matters

I would like you to tell me when you hear the first lawn mower in your neighborhood.  My good friend Tom Hauf the meteorologist, used to keep track of this annual milestone every year on his weather reports for WTVH-TV.  One might think it’s a detail that matters only to those who have nothing better to think about.  But I’ve learned such markers do matter.

The topic of conversation among my family and friends often turns to the need to work longer than planned since the stock market tanked last September and took almost half of everyone’s retirement money along with it.  It forced an unwelcome change in retirement plans.  Some of my friends have lost jobs.   Some will lose them still.  The world is moving quickly now.

So now we need to balance all that change with what never changes, and grass that grows so much it must be cut, is a good place to start.   Think about it.  Whether you tend to your lawn with fertilizer and weed killer, or you don’t, this is the time when you can count on the yard looking weird; that slice between when grass is still sleeping and a few motivated pieces are waking up.

An ambitious tuft of grass

All it took was yesterday’s unusual warmth and sunshine and a little bit of rain overnight to spout a greener, more motivated lawn today.  It’s not all growing evenly.  It has cowlicks, like hair when you first get out of bed, or a little kid’s self-inflicted hair cut.   When my lawn produces cowlicks,  it’s just a matter of time before someone’s lawn mower powers up while I’m still in bed on a Saturday or Sunday morning.   As the weeks progress, that sound and it’s accompanying sliced grass fragrance, will be so ubiquitous that I won’t hear or smell it at all, but at this time of year it always seizes my attention.

So if it captures yours too, please tell me about it.  Tom used to say the first weekend in April is reliably when he can hear the mowers in his northern suburb.  That’s next weekend.  Six more days.  Six more days to appreciate that unique half green, half gold yard out there, the one with clumps  getting a head start on the rest before it all comes up pretty much the same, the kind of lawn I see this time every year, no matter how much or how little is in the bank.

Tagged as: Economy, grass, turf