OT The Lawnmower Men

Posted by amy in CNY on June 28, 2009, 8:19 am

Well, how dare they!!!! I am livid for you.
Absolutely keep bugging the landlord AND the lawn mowing people. I
think you should have restitution too for pain and suffering!

Also, you may want to invest in a hand mower, the ones with no motor
and do the grass yourself, or hire a local teen to do it, then bill
the landlord for his/her services, or take the fee off your rent.
Could be the safest route at this point.

It'd be the coldest day in blue blazes those F***^^%$$#@$%^ men came
to my yard again!!!

Let us know the outcome.

amy in CNY

Posted by NightMist on June 28, 2009, 6:16 pm

You know I have thought several times about getting a reel mower.
You pretty much have to sharpen them yourself nowdays, and that has
put me off the idea for years. But idley flipping through webpages
about them after this latest incident, I see they now offer sharpening
kits for them that are allegedly easy to use. That has me rethinking
the concept. There are aspects that I don't think have changed in a
hundred years, if your lawn is uneven or weed ridden it might take
several passes or a touch up with grass shears for example. But they
are certainly lighter weight and better designed than when I was a kid
and all you could find were antiques.

I have been thinking that I will offer to do the lawn myself if the
landlord will buy me a reel mower +sharpening kit, and replace the
holly tree.
The rose of sharon and the cherries are most likely to come back on
their own, the rose of sharon would be easily replaceable at size, the
cherries surpisingly would be almost impossible to replace at size,
but inexpensive to restart afresh. Holly needs to be planted in pairs,
it is male-female in orientation, and the female plants tend to be
fussy about the male pollinators. The male I have is Blue Boy, and
that means I need a Blue Girl or one of a few other types of blue
female. I nursed those up from four inch pots, and the female would
run in the range of $50-$60 to replace at size. I do think the iris
will return next year, though it certainly was not healthy for it to
be mowed in full bloom! I think the lingonberries are certainly
shot. They were a rather expensive mix of varieties. Lingonberries
don't require male-female pairing, but they are not self-pollinating.
Hence the mixed varieties, the mixture was designed for optimal
fruiting. Ash is as passionate about lingonberries as some of the old
Swedes in town.

I am still planning on moving when I find a better place.
I am actively looking, but it is proving to be a difficult task.
I am considering calling Habitat for Humanity. With three people in
the house on SSI, I am pretty sure we would qualify.

Polly m'dear, I am so considering making up a bunch of earth boxes and
planting in those instead of the ground! I am also thinking about
coverting the whole of the yard to a series of raised beds Just make
the whole thing into a cottage garden, and the heck with grass!

I am also feeling a bit vindicated.
Last year I got to feeling very Little Red Hennish. Lots of work on my
part, damn little assistance from anybody in the house, and everybody
enjoying the fruits of my labor. This year I have been flat out sick
all through planting season. My starts are still in the bitty
greenhouse upstairs, the strawberries are doing poorly due to
overcrowding, nobody has tended the raspberries or the wonderberries.
The only things really thriving on neglect in a positive way are the
roses, the angelica, the parsley (just wait until everybody in the
house sees what that does if it doesn't get cut back!), and the
hollyhocks and the other assorted mallows.
Credit were it is due. They did mark and mulch most of the shrubs for
me, and we should have a whopper of a yield from the gooseberries and
currants his year.
None the less, just wait until they get a load of the price of fresh
tomatos, and just wait until the taste and texture difference hits
home! Everybody is already missing unlimited strawberries, and the
lack of strawberry jam will indeed be felt this coming winter.

NightMist

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:19:47 -0700 (PDT), amy in CNY

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Legolas is my house elf

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