Friday, April 20, 2012

Spring Means Yardwork

I love taking a drive (or a walk) through a lovely Spring afternoon. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and a lovely breeze drifts by, bringing the scent of flowers and recently mown grass.

On glorious days such as this, I get started thinking about what kind of plants and trees I want to have when my husband and I decide it’s time to own some land of our own. Mostly it’s things that were in the backyard when I was a kid: lilac bushes, some spiraea, peonies, and of course some apple trees, a few raspberry bushes, and maybe a little strawberry patch. I would love to have several flower beds, and a nice sized garden during the summer. Sweet corn tastes the best when it was growing half an hour ago.

When I was a kid, we lived in a great big house on a huge lot that took up a good quarter of a block. There was a huge front yard, a gigantic backyard, and tons of room to run on either side of the house. I can remember my dad mowing the lawn while we picked up sticks ahead of him.

My dad now owns lots of his own lawns. He has rental properties all over town, and so it’s snow and ice removal in the winter and lawn care during the rest of the year. My brothers help him out; my youngest brother has been known to drive around all summer with a couple of mowers in the back of his truck, for grass clipping emergencies.

Earlier this week I walked through the yard of the house where my parents live, picking up all of the sticks I could see and dumping them in my dad’s old trailer, which is held together through the sheer force of his will. My dad came behind me with the lawn mower for the first grass cutting of the year. It was a nice workout and I got pretty sweaty, despite the fact that it was nice and cloudy and even rained a little bit.

I’ll be very excited to hit the home & garden center to choose the plants that we will plant in our own yard someday. Our kids will hopefully be big enough by then to pick up the sticks.

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