Mowing the Lawn

Don’t say anything, but I like mowing the lawn, especially on the sunny, cool days of early summer.
There are plenty of good reasons to enjoy the job. First, its great exercise, especially mowing our hill. Second, it’s a job that gets me out into the sunshine. I’d much rather mow the lawn than clean the bathrooms. Once the lawn is mowed, it doesn’t need to be mowed again for several days. The bathroom is a wreck again mere hours. My kids always moan when they are assigned the job. It’s not too hard to get them to switch jobs with me, they are happy to swap my inside jobs for their lawn mowing duty. Plus, it impresses my husband. I throw a load of laundry in right before he returns. I look like a wonder woman and I had fun doing it.
My favorite part of the job is the multiple duties I can accomplish with the mowing of the lawn. I bag all my clippings and mulch my vegetables with them. I put down a thick layer of newspaper, water it, cover it with three to four inches of grass clippings, and water it again. This method of mulching accomplishes two goals. The newspapers and clippings keep water from evaporating from the ground surrounding the plant and this deep mulch keeps weeds at a minimum. Once I have mulched the whole garden this way, I start back at the first bed I mulched and pile on more clippings. At the end of the season, I carefully pull back the layers of grass clippings and paper, run them over with the mower once more, and bag them for use in the compost pile. They’ll make great “brown” material in my compost mix. Then I can top dress by beds in preparation for winter. The job of mowing the lawn becomes much more of an accomplishment when I think of it as mowing plus making mulch, conserving water, deterring weeds, and collecting one of the essentials for a successful compost pile. Add to those benefits exercise and a pass on inside work on a lovely day, and I’d say that mowing the lawn is a great job. Just don’t tell anyone that I said so.