my yard

When I moved into my current house a couple years back, I realized one of the dual blessings & curses would be my yard. I have a huge really green yard, with a garden (that I do little with) a compost area and all sorts of plants & grasses planted by the last tenant.

The upside is that Missouri is so rainy and warm that everything grows with little or no help; so none of the plants the prior woman planted have really died. The downside is that everything grows and grows and grows crazily. Last summer, I had someone watching my house and my yard but when I got back to town, I realized I hadn't mentioned anything about trimming. Alas, some of the grasses and plants were 6-8 feet tall; my air conditioner was totally covered by a mint plant (well, probably several mint plants) and you literally couldn't see out my living room windows because of the grasses; also, the inside of the house was full of brown recluses that had climbed off the plants and into my windows. It was insane. My dad and I hacked through the grasses and plants with a scythe and then took a weed wacker to them before being able to mow. I had someone come spray for bugs and covered all the windows in plastic.

So, I took a quick trip for three weeks this May. I again had someone watch the lawn, thinking that as long as it was just mowed, all the weeding and pruning I'd done earlier this spring should keep hold. Well, alas, the person wasn't able to make it over to mow until a week or so late, which meant the yard had had its way for 2.5 weeks by that point and parts of it were too long to mow with my little mower. Most of the lawn looks great, but the first photo is what part of my backyard looked like. (after 3 weeks: unbelievable.) So, I've spent the past couple of days back at it, hacking through the long grasses. Thankfully, it's a pretty small stretch of yard. I've also torn out some of the plants around my air conditioner and living room windows. It's unfortunate; the plants were really pretty, but I've realized they're just growing at an unmanageable speed, and I'd rather some ugly landscaping and sunlight (and no recluses) in my windows. (The top photo is a close up of my lawn--and mind you, this was once just normal grass; the bottom photo is the progress I've made so far in that section after two nights of hacking. And yes: the brown grass was all once long grass, akin to the top photo. No doubt it will be green again soon.)