And the quest for a grassless lawn continues!
Man, I hate mowing. I hate it so much I just gave my lawn mower away.
I've had the same Sears lawn mower for years and years and I put it through hell, shoving it through overgrown rental house lawns in Missouri and trying to use it as a brush hog in Florida, but every spring when it was time to fire it up again, it required a trip to the small engine repair shop. Many a friend pointed out that I could easily buy a new mower for the combined repair costs I was shelling out but something in my German-European-old world-Missouri farmer mentality made me insist on repairing and working with what I had.
That ended this spring. I pulled the mower out of storage, found it seized up, as usual, and rolled it right up the street to the man who scraps my metal refuse. I won't take the time right now to do the scrapping and I know he appreciates it so it's a win-win and he was happy to take my white elephant mower. Good riddance! Over the years I have worked hard to minimize the existence of grass in my yard with mulch and plants and I'm making great progress.
I'm not certain how all my neighbors feel about this but I don't live in an HOA neighborhood, thank goodness, and I personally believe I have the best yard around but it will always be a work in progress.
When I started dating Mike I had to widen the entrance to my drive on the cheap. Still getting that project to look the way I want. The natural stone border shifts too much and the mulch I orginally put down washes too easily as this area receives a lot of runoff during rainstorms. Some friends are replacing the old cement roofing tiles on their home and gave me carte blanche with all the tiles they have removed. This gave me the idea of doing the drive "Mexican style." Back in 1993 I spent 3 weeks in Xalapa, Mexico and noticed that potholes were regularly filled with construction debris as a cheap form of quick maintenance. I'm trying it and so far I like the results. I originally feared a flat tire from the initial breaking of the tiles by driving over them but that hasn't happened, and a passerby recently told me it looked "cool". Each tile weighs several pounds so transferring them to my house is taking some time but I'll get there eventually. And even though I try to be green, I do resort to a chemical border for the grass and weeds. Florida's plants all seem to have hyper-aggressive runners that depress me when I can't control them.
Now, for the rest of that unwanted lawn.
I've been buying used sheets from Goodwill for my weed barrier and laying down pine sawdust from a friend's sawmill, a rather laborious messy process which takes some mental preparation to do in the summer heat. I've almost got the whole area covered and will then top dress it with a couple inches of mulch and that will be the end of my front "lawn." I will still have to use a little Round Up until the grass underneath fully dies out and I have to keep up with DIY insect treatments. While I don't believe this type of mulch attracts termites, I do believe that they would not turn down a nice, pre-chewed meal.
Now I like to cross the street to my neighbor's house which is on a slight rise and look at my beautiful yard. I've been planting since '07 and some of the structure plants are gaining substance and their is always something in bloom.
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