When we bought our house in 2000, while about 2/3 of the backyard was grass, perhaps 1/3, maybe a bit more, was actually brick. There had been an above-ground swimming pool once upon a time, long before we moved in, but the indentation, framed by railroad ties, was still there.
Our yard had a unique design, and we liked it, for a time. That is until the bricks started to wear down, the railroad ties no longer walkable due to deterioration. We decided two summers ago to have the brick area torn up – with said bricks filling in part of the hole – and putting in more grass instead.
Though I had agreed to it, this was not thrilling to me, since I was the one who mows the lawn. After all, lawns are a soul-crushing timesuck and most of us would be better off without them.
As I’ve noted, I’d been using a reel push mower. But my parents-in-law got us an electric mower last season. I did not use it because the new grass wasn’t coming in very well, but was mostly a swampy marsh.
Now, though, we have a full lawn, and I have capitulated to using the new machine. It IS especially helpful in the dandelion season when the only way to keep up with them would be to reel mow twice a week; THAT wasn’t going to happen.
Ouch! While mowing, I was getting conked the head by some low-hanging branches in our yard. And the manual hedge trimmer we have wasn’t going to be able to cut through them. But what I COULD cut were some of the ancillary branches, which would raise the predator branches an inch here, a couple of centimeters there, until I could walk beneath without being attacked by flora.
Thus armed with my implement of destruction, and inspired by the city workers who had trimmed branches away from the power lines on our street that very day, I also walked up the street, pruning branches of trees that would otherwise have slapped me in the face.
You’re welcome, neighbors.