Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for June 04, 2021

Yup!

Feed, water, mow, repeat! 8^ (

Unless something’s wrong with your mower, it won’t cause the need for reseeding.

The bigger the patio the less grass to mow and you could add a pool and hot tub. You know a few extra tables and chairs. Just leave enough room for a grass border around the flowers.

Why am I trying to get the grass to grow and then I mow it?

All those things you do is the price of a good lawn. Janis will love you for what your doing’

It’s a vicious cycle. I replaced mine with ground cover plants.

Look on the bright side Arlo. You’re getting fresh air and some exercise. With the reward of some splendor in the grass.

Early in the growing season, it’s exciting to see all the flowers in bloom and the lawn thick and green. But then, by some time in July or August, it’s not fun any more, and it’s too hot to be working outdoors.

That is why I don’t bother to water my lawn, especially as I don’t have an HOA or significant other that cares about having a perfectly green lawn.

What is that on his face?? It looks like a stick-on nose.

Nice to see you catch on, Arlo. Lawns are a waste of resources and money. They steal your time to at least mow, gas (or electricity) for the mower, the mower itself which requires maintenance. If you start feeding and seeding and weed-killing and the myriad other things people do to make their lawns pretty, that mounts into lots and lots of time, money, stuff, and pollution.

Stop it. Lawns are a bad idea.

The pesticides kill the many beneficial species (pollinators, earth worms, butterflies, and birds to name a few). Have you ever held a dying bird in your hand as it experienced pre death seizures after ingesting a poisoned insect? I have. When was the last time you enjoyed a nighttime firefly show? I had to give up growing 3 tomato plants because of the herbicide mist from the monthly applications to my neighbor’s lawn.

If I’m going to work to make something grow, it ain’t gonna be grass. My front yard is a garden which I can admire instead having a green desert. My backyard is patio and gardens and a wooded area. I have about 600 square feet of grass on both front sides of the house.

The only thing sillier than this is making the bed and unmaking the bed then making the bed ad infinitum.

Kinda like changing a diaper and then feeding the kid again.

If you want to have a healthy lawn that can take some being trodden on it does pay to have a robotic lawn mower cutting the grass constantly (every night like at one of my neighbors). After some time this makes reseeding and fertilizing and even weeding unnecessary. The little cut there is is left to rot in place and thus mulches suffficiently, saving you the work and the cost for seed and chemicals in exchange for a initially expensive setup and some electricity. Only need left is to water.

If not then sow wildflowers and let it grow. Partially scythe the weed when the flowers had time to reseed themselves, let it dry on the spot for a few days to the delight of the birds and feed the hay to your rabbits in winter.

If it were not for dandelions, I wouldn’t have a lawn!

Maybe he also didn’t make the connection between the Adult Bed Playtime and having his only child nine months later.

Sad thing is, it took him 45 years to figure it out…

You’re just now getting it? Dude.

I had four neighbors, all older than I. Our main topic of conversation was the lawn and who should mow theirs next. Three died mowing their lawn. I finally got a yard guy. I guess it was good exercise, and kind of entertaining. (Questionable). But like everything else, you have to know your limitations. The fourth guy? I think I hear him out there now.

because you want to be like Ms Oprah , Her water bill for 1 house is 30 K a month, supposedly .

Pour concrete and paint it green. Problem solved.

Looks like the spreader has doubled in size.

Why even have grass? Xeriscape or Wildlife habitat.

I fertilized my lawn once – had to mow it twice a week. Never did that again.

Hey. Arlo. Ever hear of Sisyphus?

Meanwhile, Janis is in the Jacuzzi, contemplating a mani-pedi.

It’s never ending.

Exactly!!!!

It’s Arlo’s fault for encouraging that parasite to grow.

Summertime…..

Get native, drought resistant plants. Lawns are money drains.

as long as it’s short and green who cares

I sprayed the yard to get rid of wild violets once. The grass came in mower choking thick. Wild violets have a grass growth suppressant. My yard is purple in the spring and hasn’t been sprayed since.

Lawns are mighty unpopular in Flagstaff. The permanent water rationing and the high price of water make it only for the very well heeled. I was talking to a neighbor around the block who had a maybe 200 square foot patch of lawn. He said the little patch added almost 200 dollars to his summer water bills.

Ah, yes…. that moment when it all sinks in.

One theory on the advent of the lawn, it provided wide swath of smooth grass to make it easier to spot snakes and other critters encroaching on the house.

I have a friend who advocates and plans yards based on local plants that need little extra water or attention after being installed.

Arlo has discovered the meaning of lawn.

Ground cover. We have a beautiful, green carpet of ground cover instead of lawn. We mow it about once a year. And it even blooms in the spring! Neighbors compliment us on it all the time.

Love todays strip

Hopefully more and more owners can convince their HOA’s that lawns don’t need to be made out of water wasting bluegrass!

That’s why I prefer to let the clover and dandelions grow… they take no effort, look nice and are good for the bees.

As soon as the youngest one moved out, I wanted to pave the lawn. My bride is still against it, even though she has NEVER mowed it.

Yup, it’s folly but the HOA says we gotta.

And speaking of water waste, there is a compound called Cyanuric Acid (CyA) that is included in a number of chlorine products used in swimming pools to stabilize the chlorine to prevent it evaporating away in sunlight. When the amount of CyA in a pool gets too high, the most effective way to reduce it is to pump water out of the pool and replace it with fresh water. Then you start using your “stabilized chlorine” again, and the level goes up again. What I can’t understand is why the makers of chlorine tablets and stabilized powders have to put so much CyA in their products. There are a lot of swimming pools in California and other heavy wildfire areas and currently a big drought. If the state is going to ban plastic straws for drinks, why not limit the use of CyA in swimming pool products? Anybody know a state or Federal legislator? Pass this information along.

We missed the time to cut the grass again this year. Not going out makes us not think of it. The grass and weeds are as high as my thigh and the weed trees are almost as tall as me – and under it all somewhere is the poison ivy. Guess we will let it grown wild again this year, die down over the winter and hopefully remember to check it all in the back yard more timely next year. (Almost no grass in front of house.) Paving the back yard sounds better and better.