The Mosses of Fairyland

The Mosses of Fairyland

Once upon a time, in a town not so far away, I had a lawn nazi neighbor. He scowled about my dandelions and told me how I needed to weed and feed my lawn with chemicals in order to protect his lawn. I gave into the pressure a couple of times, and I tried to be the perfect neighbor with the perfect lawn, but I just never fit into that role. I felt terrible about the chemicals going into the groundwater or worse getting on the paws of passing-by animals. I tried using special instruments to extract lawn weeds, but that process just wore me out. In the end, I adopted my Mom’s view of lawn maintenance: a mowed lawn looks great even if it’s filled with weeds. I just made sure we kept the lawn mowed or at least tried to be beat the dandelions from getting too tall and flowery.

Mossy Concrete EdgeThough I do not aspire to lawn perfection, I do have a dream for my lawn. I want my lawn to be nothing but moss. Not only would I save a fortune in gasoline for the lawn mower, but my yard would look lush all the time. Thick carpets of moss would coat the ground, the trees, brick pathways, and stone statues. It would choke out the ever-present dandelions. It would feel soft under my feet. No one would criticize the height of my lawn. I wouldn’t have to worry about scowling neighbors or ticks hanging around in tall grasses.

With a moss lawn, I really could imagine that I live in Rivendell, Ferngully, or Endor. Scratch Endor! I don’t want to live with Ewoks. My lawn would be a magical place, and my home would be the center of a magical world. I guess that would mean that I’d need to clean my house. Oh well, all fairy tales have dark sides. Still, I dream of a moss lawn.

Mossy YardLooking around online, I noticed that moss has the reputation for being a weed. The term weed is not always a negative thing. It just speaks to the invasive nature of the plant. I like that moss can be invasive. That gives me hope! My front lawn already has lush moss mixed with grass in the shady areas. I am hopeful I can encourage the moss to spread.

I stumbled across an article on Southern Living’s website about growing a moss lawn. I’m definitely tucking that away as a reference. I do have a lot of shady parts in my yard, and I have areas where grass doesn’t grow readily. I am concerned about moss’s need for lots of moisture, but the moss I do have seems happy so maybe there’s enough moisture to work on expanding mossy patches.

Maybe one day, I will walk into my yard, and Lord Elrond will walk toward me, saying “Welcome to Rivendell.” It’s a nice dream. Yards are filled with dreams.

Caught by Surprise

Japonica in full bloom

Spring catches me by surprise. I don’t know how it happens every year, but it does. I’m always certain that I have a few more weeks before yard work begins full force, and then smack, here’s spring!

Last year, spring came about a month early. That was a legitimate surprise. This year, winter seemed to drag on and on. I was salivating for spring. The thoughts of warmer days, growing grass, and garden planning filled my thoughts, but even with such great anticipation, spring still caught me off guard. We had snow on the ground one day and summer temperatures a couple of days later. Amazing!

I have anticipated starting this blog. I bought the domain this time last year and procrastinated through the summer, fall, and winter. It’s something I have always wanted to do, but I kept finding reasons to put it off…too busy, too tired, not inspired, a hangnail, etc. My goal was to launch right before spring really hit, but I delayed a bit at the start. Anyway, I am here!

During the past couple of weeks, I did manage to catch up to spring a bit. I have managed to shake off the winter cobwebs…both literally and figuratively.

Three weekends ago, I picked up sticks in my front yard, which seemed to take forever. In fact, during that time I was picking up sticks, I fantasized about big machines with claws scooping down and picking up the twigs, sticks, branches, tree trunks. I imagined that I wouldn’t mind having unattractive machines in the yard as long as I never had to pick up sticks again. I also thought about making an 80’s-style workout video. I could wear a shiny leotard, a terrycloth headband, and leg warmers…oh and frosty pink lipstick! I could jump in place and then stretch down to grab a bunch of sticks, informing the world about this awesome tummy toning workout. In reality, I got worn out after loading the wheel barrow four times, felt dizzy and sick, cast myself on the couch in my den, watched a bunch of episodes of Call the Midwife, and picked up KFC for dinner. I didn’t finish picking up sticks in the front yard that day, and they mocked me the rest of the week every time I came home from work.

Two weekends ago, I hand-pulled weeds in my veggie garden. Though the Mantis tiller arrived a few days earlier, I knew I couldn’t just till the weeds and feel good about it. The ground was tight with weeds of all sorts. As I pulled the weeds, I thought about them as problems that needed to be resolved. Each pulled weed was one more resolved problem, but every time I looked up, the problems seemed to multiply. I decided to change my perspective. Each weed became a zombie I must kill. Then, I got distracted with “pretty” weeds. I had so many violets, and they didn’t look ugly. I almost convinced myself that they could stay. In the end, I decided to pull enough weeds to be good enough. The tiller could do the rest!

This past weekend, I busted out the tiller for the first time. I had never used a tiller in my life. Earlier this spring, my Mom (who’s also my neighbor) and I bought a Mantis together. In my dreams, I could just unleash it on the veggie garden and let it do all the work. Though it did make working up the soil easier, I had no idea it would involve that much work. My arms hurt today! The good news is that the garden is tilled, and I planted some seeds despite the better advice of the seed packets. The risk of frost in this area does not pass until after Derby Day. I’m living dangerously! I hope the summer squash, bibb lettuce, green onions, and bush beans survive and thrive.

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