K. Close III

The Grass is Most Definitely Greener…

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 | Home

…in which I talk about the futility of lawn care in the Texas summer.

So, when I was growing up in Connecticut, we didn’t have a lawn at all. We lived in the deep woods surrounded by rich deciduous trees that would support nothing beneath their canopy but a thick layer of mulched leaves and moss. In those youthful days of frolicking in the rough, often brambly undergrowth of the New England forestry, I dreamed of nothing more than a lush green lawn with grass so thick it was like carpet that tickled your toes on warm summer days. What I got, however, was a house in Texas with a dry, desolate excuse for a lawn, with grass that is almost perpetually in hibernation.

Of course, when you live in the dorms, or later an apartment, there’s nothing you can do to alter the condition of your local ground cover. Fortunately, in both of those environments, there’s usually a greater motivation on the part of the property owner to keep a high level of curb appeal. And, as a resident, you feel like you’re living in a nice place just because there’s this leafy landscape surrounding your 300 square feet. If you’re anything like me, the unlimited watering and the manicure service will spoil you for the day that all of that work and responsibility rests soundly on your own shoulders and wallet.

When we first moved into our rental house, the yard was not what you would call aesthetic. It was a project to be tackled. Fortunately, being a rent house, I never really felt fully obligated to put a ton of energy into it. We mowed enough to keep it from looking completely overgrown, and we watered enough to make us think we were doing something, but for the most part, it was just the space between the door and the road. It was someone else’s land and we were just borrowing it. We were no landscape sharecroppers. Of course, it didn’t hurt our attitude when the house across the street had a yard that was permanently littered with old furniture and car parts. There was no peer pressure to be better. We just maintained as best we could, and I continued to envision the yard that I would inevitably call mine.

Then we moved into our current home. In my mind, the lawn was lush and thick and green, like that of a resort or golf course. I have to go back and look at old pictures to find the truth, which is a bit more of a mixed realization than that. When we moved into the house, there was thick green grass, yes, but there were also wide patches of barren earth. It was the boldness of the green that sticks in my head, and now when I look upon my land, that is my land, the land that I call mine, and see this faded yellow wasteyard, I think, “What did I do?”

We did, admittedly, neglect the lawn and yard work for more than a couple of years. We kept up the same level of attention that we’d learned to dole out in the rent house. Just, basically, keeping it from looking like a pasture. But finally, a few years ago, I started to feel really bad about how our yard looked. When I ride around my neighborhood, it’s filled with the houses of people who have either the time to dedicate to it, the money to throw at it, or both. Even now, in this worst drought in years, the houses around me still have fairly rich, lush grass. I know the truth of this is wasteful though, because I ride my bike past all of these houses every day. There are more than just a couple of houses out there on my commute that are watering their lawns every day, despite the cost and the anti-conservationist attitude, they are just pouring out gallons and gallons of water every single day. I just can’t keep up with that.

Last year I spent some money and set up an above ground irrigation system. Yes, it sounds more complicated than it is. It’s really just some hoses and sprinklers, and a battery operated, multi-zone, hose timer. Between that and enrolling in a TruGreen service, I really had hoped that things would start to turn around and we’d see that green come back. Now, I will admit, there has been some improvement, but nothing that would lump into the “vast” category. One of the things that had started to crop up when we left the lawn to it’s own devices was a plague of that horrible Texas bur grass. It got to the point that not only was our grass not pleasant to walk in, not only did it not tickle our feet, but it was a downright tragedy to even attempt to make it across the yard without shoes. With the regular application of “ChemLawn,” the burs were nearly eradicated and it seems to be staying that way.

Nevertheless, the moniker of “TruGreen” has not really applied in our situation. Of course, every time they come out, they leave little notes on our door, indicating that we need to water more, or we need to trim our trees more, etc., but the problem is, all of this comes with a cost, and while I really would like to see a bit more emerald than gold, we just don’t have the money to keep throwing at the yard. This month was our highest utility bill ever since moving into this house, and I have to attribute at least a part of that to the attempts to lush up the lawn. Originally, we programmed our irrigation system to run three zones, each at 15 minutes a piece, every three days. Over time, and especially this summer, I have tried to up the water output without bankrupting us. We are currently up to two zones for 45 minutes and the third for 30, still every three days. Sure, it’s only been this way for about a month, but how much water do you dump on the ground before you decide that even that’s not enough and anything more would be beyond your means?

Now, one of the ways that we’re lucky, is this is an older, well established, diverse neighborhood. We have no homeowners association telling us how our yard is supposed to look, fining us for length and quality of blade. In fact, we lucked out by moving in between two people who also appear to have environmental challenges that cannot be met. Our southern neighbors are more in our situation in that they have the shorn veld look to their land, whereas the neighbors to the north suffer more from the lawn pattern baldness where the majority of their yard is just barren earth. In this, we end up looking like a kind of three stooges of landscape maintenance as none of us have a nice golf turf going like the majority of the houses around us. But despite that, I can tell you from observation, we’re all still valiantly trying.

Living at the top of a “T” intersection, my daily commute ends with a ride straight toward my house, bookended by these other two struggling neighbors. I spend the last two minutes of my ride forced into a comparison between our three standouts amongst all these other houses with perfect curb appeal. I watch as sprinklers and misters keep their landscape lush and wonder, how much is too much, and is it really worth it? Maybe, just maybe, that guy with the pea gravel yard had the right idea.

Tags: Connecticut, lawn care, Texas

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