Lawn Care

Mowed the lawn today.  It's been almost two decades since I can claim to have done that and it feels pretty darned good to say it.  I just may say it again.  Louder.  I MOWED THE LAWN TODAY!  There.  That even looks better, as does the lawn after today's trim.

The mower has been started and used several times a year during my vacation from mowing lawns, but it was used to overcome weeds, not grass.  My New Mexico landscape consisted in native vegetation, which really means any form of weed that could push it's way through gravel covered soil, baked into an adobe-like brick, was allowed to grow.  No sissy, green, spindly, manicured grass was given permission to exist.  Took too much water.  What was out around the house was tamed only by strategically placed rock walk ways and Round Up.  I used lots of Round Up cause thorny stuff like native grasses and yucca need a lot of taming.

Yucca.  Now that's an interesting plant in that it always comes with the Yucca Moth.  Did you know that only a Yucca Moth can pollinate a Yucca plant?  It's true.  Nothing else will get the job done.  This behavior is called "obligate mutualism"  and refers to a relationship where one spices is TOTALLY dependent on the other.  Only these Moths can pollinate the Yucca and they lay their eggs among the seeds.  After hatching, the moth larva eat only Yucca seeds.  If one species were to suddenly vanish, the other would soon follow.  Sort of like Americans and cars.  We absolutely refuse to ride bikes or trains or buses to the store so we'd starve if we didn't have cars.  And who'd make the cars if we starved?  Everybody else in the world knows how to walk or ride something else.

I have knowledge of this esoteric fact only because it is expected that I know something of the weeds in my landscaping.  To get away with having nothing but a bunch of weeds in your lawn area socially, you must be able to name them and give an enquiring guest a little information about which ever one of them piques his interest. Understand, all my buddies know they're just a bunch of weeds, but casual aquaintances have no clue, and appearances really do matter.  My weed turns into a plant only if I know it's name.  And, by extension, I turn into a caring environmentalist instead of a lazy slob who doesn't take care of his lawn.  It's amazing what a little knowledge can do to one's station in life.

Occasionally, no matter how much herbicide I used, the only way to open the front door was to mow the mess.  Take it down to the ground.  Well, at least down to about four inches off the ground 'cause that's about as close as I could get without breaking the mower blades on the rocks the pocket gophers threw out of their burrows as they enlarged their dens.  Everyone thinks of New Mexico as a barren, desert wasteland but, let me tell you, it's a war zone of competing life forms, and I'm not real sure humans stand even a fair chance of winning that battle.  For sure it's hard on mowers. 

Take, for instance, my mower.  Before I used it today, I cleared the area under the deck of caked on dirt and associated embedded weeds, removed, sharpened, and reinstalled the blade,  then washed the top areas and added oil.  I drained all of last years gas and added a fresh tankful.  I then pushed the priming plunger three times and pulled the cord.  It started on the second pull!.  No trip to the mower shop this year.  Then it started to surge. 

You know.  It ran, then missed a couple of strokes and then ran and missed some more.  Master mechanic and ruler of all things made of metal that I am, I knew to first look at the air filter.  Sure enough, it was full of New Mexico dirt and dust.  I cleaned and reinstalled the filter and tried again.  It ran like a champ. An hour later the lawn was done.  Tomorrow I'll try out the edger. 

Not much chance of anything going wrong with it.  It has a motor instead of an engine. 





 
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