Our House, Looking West

Lawn care is a perennial topic for discussion around here.  By ‘discussion’ I mean, of course, civilized disagreement between members of the household.  It’s one of the areas in our particular marriage contract on which I get an opinion but not necessarily a vote. That’s because of the unwritten (but clear) ‘fairness’ doctrine – also a hallowed part of that contract.

Here’s the deal: Farmer Nyel takes care of the lawn; therefore he gets to make the final decisions as to procedures.  I have to look at the lawn and, since I am an adherent of the “appearances are everything” words to live by, I frequently have a great many concerns.   In fact, our annual look at the pros and cons of aerating (sometimes called plug-aerating) and/or de-thatching the lawn distresses me more than I can describe.

The View from our East Porch

In the past, we’ve done both but at separate times.  In each instance our lawn took a full year to recover and improvement was minimal.  In the meantime it was unsightly.  Just plain plug-ugly… literally.  At least, that’s my memory of things.  Unfortunately, my spouse and helpmate doesn’t remember that we have ever done the de-thatching thing at all and his memory of the aerating process is much different from mine.

It’s all complicated, of course, by the fact that Farmer Nyel has been unable to locate access to the required equipment which may or may not come with an operator-expert in the care and nurturing of lawns.  So… finances also may be involved.  The discussion is likely to escalate, as is the way of things.

If I had my druthers we’d be rich and sod the whole business.  Literally.  I hesitate to ask what Nyel’s druthers would be.