One lawn mowed, zero ankles injured

[gerisullivan]

Last summer, I looked out my office window and saw a fat'n'sassy groundhog surveying the land near the magnolia tree here at Toad Woods. I only saw him once, and never noticed anything in the way of serious issues while mowing the lawn.

Fast forward to this spring. Uh-oh. Early explorations of the yard suggest the groundhogs have claimed the entire south hillside as their domain. There are a couple of big holes in the lawn on the north side of the house, too. At this rate, I'm surprised the furry creatures haven't established an express tunnel through the basement toy room. At least, I hope they haven't....

I quickly lost count. There are at least a dozen holes out there; it seemed like more. Winter and summer burrows, more than one family, the entire groundhog population of the eastern seaboard? I don't know. The coyotes don't seem to be keeping up with them, that's all I can say.

I'm inclined to leave them be and simply continue watching my step when I mow. My usual rule of thumb is that if it's outdoors and not an immediate threat to my safety, I do my best to adjust to and accommodate it. Indoors is my territory. I'll poison mice, shrews, and bugs inside the house with impunity. If it's larger, I'll do my best to relocate it outdoors rather than kill it, but the bottom line is that it's gotta go.

Note to any of the surviving clumps of bluets who may have cracked my password and be surfing LJ on the Toad Woods Wireless: If you look about, you may noticed that the spinning blade of death that passed you by this afternoon took out pretty much every last one of your bluet cousins who had decided that single and free was the better way to be. Learn! Learn and you will continue to grow! Stay in your lovely clumps, close in and easy to mow around. Don't hide beneath the leaves, burst forth in blossom!

I mowed down hundreds, no, thousands of bluets, dandelions, tiny anemones, and violets.The edge of the mower clipped just enough mint that I slowed down to savor taking deep breathes before pushing on to another part of the lawn.

The winter's bumper crop of sticks has been tossed into the woods bordering every edge of the lawn. Blackberry, raspberry, and rose vines did their level best to snag me, perhaps in retaliation for my mass slaughter of defenseless flowers. Five thousand and more steps later, the job was done.

For a few weeks, at least.

Comments

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

It's the damndest thing. In our old yard in a more urban area, our tiny yard back had mole holes all over the place. I twisted my ankle more than once while mowing our old yard.

Now, we're out in the country. Not quite as countrified as your area, but more countrified than most people we know. While we have bunnies, assorted small birds and the occasional turkey, there are no signs of mole or groundhog holes anywhere in our yard. This is odd because there are loads of groundhogs within a half mile or so of the house.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Groundhogs eh! We just watched Caddyshack... I don't know who was more surprised by the topless women... me or the boys... I forgot there was nudity in the movie... oh well better that than people being minced and diced.

Your lawn sounds more like meadow than lawn. We have something called Ground Ivy infesting our front lawn. It is so thick I have been told by 2 people in the business I would have to use Roundup on the lawn, rototill then resod to get rid of it. It smells just like mint when it is mowed (your mint made me think of it). The violets sound like a weed here we call Johnny Jumpups.

Raspberries can be annoying to get rid of if they take a liking to your lawn but the absolute worst was the lilacs. They would sucker and show up 8" or more away from the main bush. It took 3 years to get rid of them and the lawn looked like a war zone after. If we hadn't removed them we would have had just one big lilac bush in our backyard and no lawn... not anything else... well, I guess the taller trees may have survived.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

The Bluets (which I've never seen before, even in pictures) look delightful -- and they seem to be a perennial, so if you didn't mow them too short they might bloom again next month. The same goes for the Violets (some Toad Hall white&blue ones are now blooming in a crack in my driveway) and, of course, the Dandelions.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the bluets getting into your wireless network.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I've always thought lawn over-rated. I'd be encouraging the short plants and hoping they choke out the grass.