Tis the season to paint your lawn green

Around here some lawns at this time of year get sprayed green or pink. We first saw the green last year while browsing real estate web sites, so we thought it was a miss-guided attempt to make the house more appealing during the brown winter time. Then we saw the pink one. Was that supposed to be festive, perhaps for Christmas?

Turns out it's just winter fertilizer treatment. There are two lawn treatment companies in town--one uses pink, the other goes with green. So a mundane explanation, but it just goes to show how seriously people take a good-looking lawn. Because, you know, that stuff is expensive.

I was actually glad at about the end of October when everyone's lawn turned brown all at once one morning. Because then they matched mine. And then the weather turned colder, and even the weeds died. Yay!

I wish I'd taken Hilary's advice in the spring and just spent the money for a spreader and the stuff you spread with it. But I went with the cheaper alternative and chose the weed n' feed that you attach to your hose for spraying. Guess you get what you pay for. And I wish I'd taken Marisse's advice to check out library books on lawn and garden care a little earlier. It turns out lawns really do need more care than just mowing--although, seriously, that should be enough!

About mid-summer I was seriously looking for weed killer. The crab grass was taking over, along with a pot pourri of little disruptive plants whose names I don't know. I tried weeding by hand, but it felt like a task from a Greek myth--you know, like Aphrodite telling Psyche to separate the mountain of mixed seeds. I'd work for a good hour and only clear a few square feet. And it didn't improve the look of the lawn. In fact, it just looked scarred, like an acne-ridden face that's been picked at the way the dermatologist and your mom say you shouldn't.

So when manual labor doesn't work, you turn to better living through chemistry. The only weed killing options I could find were (1) weed n' feed spray, which sounds good except the instructions claimed it shouldn't be used more than twice a year (clearly inadequate), and (2) Round-up type herbecides, which kill ALL plants. Guess that's for getting rid of sprouts in your driveway or rock-and-gravel bed. So I just suffered lawn envy through the late summer and fall.

In the fall I finally got around to reading a couple of library books on the subject. Apparently a lawn doesn't really need weed killer, other than that spring pre-emergent stuff for crab grass. It just needs water and fertilizer to stay strong. When it's strong it keeps out the weeds on its own.

So if I were a really dedicated home-owner, I'd take this opportunity to get a jump on a good, healthy lawn for next year. But since we may be moving, I'm not so motivated to spend the money. On the other hand, I could go cheap with home-made remedies. One of the books I read was all about homemade, organic lawn treatments, for every kind of lawn ailment. The thing is, the treatments I'd need call for beer or whiskey. Uchenna didn't think I should buy those kinds of ingredients, even if not for personal consumption. I was just as glad, since I didn't want my yard smelling like a brewery.

And anyway, the snow has fallen now so we can't even see the lawn anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. We'll just shovel the walk and call it good.