Hey, it’s spring
Nope, I don’t have to look at the calendar to tell it’s spring, around here we just
look at the thermometer. We’ve already had our first 90-degree day and we already
had the A/C on one time, I’m guessing the two happened on the same day, I didn’t
pay attention though. We hired a new gardening service to take care of our lawn and
stuff. This is probably the fourth group that we’ve had since we’ve lived here, not
counting the ones that came to do the initial cleanup, but never returned for the
weekly maintenance. There seems to be some unwritten agreement among these guys that
the “initial” cleanup will be $160 regardless of how little time it takes, and weekly,
or bi-weekly maintenance runs anywhere from $35 a week to $90 depending on how badly
the one that’s bidding needs the job I suppose. Our yard is typical of what you’ll
find out here in the desert. Except for those of some cold-weather transplants, most
yards here are what are referred to as “xeriscape,” or low water landscaping. Most
of our yard is covered in crushed, decomposed granite, although we do have a small
patch of grass in the back. Some people have the grass for the pets, but we don’t
have any, so as long as we water it, the grass stays green. We also have an automatic
drip system for the trees, shrubs and flowers.
As for the grass, well, most people use some type of Bermuda grass in the summer.
It goes dormant in the winter, and when the nights reach 90 degrees, it will grow
again. It’s not like blade grass; it throws out runners and keeps rooting into the
ground along the runners. This is great when bare spots fill in by themselves, but
it can be a pain when the grass starts creeping into the gravel part of the yard,
or your flowerbeds. Some people like green grass all year, so in the fall, they virtually
scalp the Bermuda and sprinkle on some winter grass seed, usually rye or bluegrass.
This is great if you like to water and mow grass all year long, but we don’t. To
be sure, we didn’t even water the Bermuda grass last summer just so it didn’t need
to be cut, but I’ll get back to that in a bit. Anyway, when the temperature is high
enough, the winter grass goes away and the Bermuda springs to life. Within a few
weeks, one can have a nice green, but somewhat course, lawn, even if it’s just a
small patch.
Now as I said, last summer we didn’t water the grass, so it stayed brownish all year,
well except for the few times it rain and tried to green up. We did that because
we had let our gardening service go and I was still recovering from shoulder surgery,
which really didn’t matter that much since I don’t mow lawns anyway, but Peggy was
a bit busy taking care of me and didn’t have the time either. We have had some not-so-good
experiences with these lawn guys. More than once, we hired someone to do the initial
cleanup, and they never showed back up after that. I guess that’s kind of a scam
since they skip the lower paying maintenance. We’ve had a few that actually did come
back on a scheduled basis, only to get a bit sloppy or by taking the easy way by
trimming anything that was growing down to a nub. Yep, there went the yellow and
purple flowers on our bushes. Well, now I think we finally got someone that cares.
They spent over six hours cleaning up our yard, they mowed the weeds… uh, I mean
the grass, hand picked all the weeds growing in our gravel and even trimmed some
trees. When they left, everything looked great. They promised to come back every
other week at a reasonable price too. As far as the grass goes, well, the Bermuda
will come back even after being dormant for two years; now that’s amazing. With all
the scientific experiments and the great strides made in modern medicine today, I
would think that someone would be looking into how hardy that grass is and maybe
they’d come up with a cure for old age, or at least some of the ills and pains of
it. Imagine, sprinkling a bit of water on you and you spring to life again after
not being able to move for two years.
You can contact Don at: nscaler@gmail.com
