For some months now, the grounds around the Captain Stream House at the north end of the village have looked to be under siege.  In early fall the lawn and plants were removed, a sprinkling system was installed, and then the area lay fallow.  Until yesterday!

At nine yesterday morning, 87,000 pounds of sod arrived – rolls and rolls of gorgeous green grass.  All day long, a crew of workers laid out those rolls creating what has to be the most beautiful lawn that has ever graced Oysterville.  My dad would have been ‘sore amazed!’

In my father’s view of things, a well-kept lawn was the centerpiece of any garden worth mentioning.  He was the one responsible for converting the rather tatty (though sometimes mowed) grass around our house into a sea of manicured green.  He did it in the usual way of the average homeowner in the seventies – by sowing grass seed.

Shortly after he and my mom retired to Oysterville, they and I went on a ‘grand tour’ of Europe.  (Well… grand to us.  I was tour director and we traveled for several months in my newly purchased VW, I-the-veteran-traveler showing them-the-neophytes all of my favorite haunts…) In England we visited many of the stately homes and, always, it was the gardens that intrigued my dad.

In Oxford we happened upon a gardener who was just finishing up his duties around Christ Church.  “How do you get such a beautiful lawn?” my father asked.  “Well, I’ll tell you,” the man answered in a broad accent that I can’t begin to replicate.  “First we rolls ‘em.  Then we sows ‘em.  Then we rolls ‘em.  Then we mows ‘em.”

My dad loved that response and often quoted it after returning to the grassy swaths of Oysterville.  And, essentially, that’s how he planted our lawn – first leveling the area by rolling over it with a huge water-filled drum, then hand-sowing the grass seed, and forever more mowing and mowing and mowing.

By now, forty years later, we should probably start all over – but it’s not very high on my priority list, even should we win the lottery.  Moss and buttercup intrusions notwithstanding, the lawn still provides plenty of foundation for playing croquet and bowls and horseshoes or just sitting around on lawn chairs looking at the bay.  It’s the latter activity that is my personal favorite and, for whatever it’s worth, it’s what my dad liked best, too!  It’s a fine thing to know that there will soon be a properly beautiful setting up the street for more strenuous lawn entertainment.