June is moving right along! Usually by this time of year, I can't imagine everything blanketed in white. But the memory of ten feet of snow and below zero temps is still burned in my mind. I can't believe things can survive those kinds of conditions!
The grey squirrel population took a big hit this winter. Usually we have 8 or ten running around, but this spring we have one that slips in to the feeder at dawn and dusk. Was it the cold and snow- or hungry raptors that annihilated the population?
Usually we have 4 or more nesting pairs of robins. I can hear one singing through the open window as I type, but when I mowed the "meadow" the other day, not one came to hunt on the newly mowed lawn.
We don't have a lawn mower, so I borrow one from a friend. You would not believe this old push mower. The spark plug falls out. The brake line is broken. The blades are dull from mowing rocks and stumps. There are large floaties in the gas tank. AND he runs it on chainsaw (mixed oil and gas) gas!!!
Prime it about 20 times, pull it twice, and it goes like hell.
So I just mowed for the first time this year. I love "integrated" lawns. Except for broad leaf plaintain...grrr. I also love perfect lawns like the game field at the Firebird's high school. My lawn works for me, because if I don't mow it for a month or so I have a beautiful wildflower meadow. :)
The dandelions had gone by, but the fescue had started to go to seed. I wanted to wait until after the fescue set seed, so I could plant free grass seed when I mowed, but I just could not wait any longer.
I noticed a few black eyed susans (one of my favorite wildflowers) were gettting ready to bloom in the lawn, so I dug them up. I pulled the evening primrose because the mowed stalks hurt to step on with barefeet.
I left the Queen Anne's lace, the yarrow, the red clover (the bumblebees were pissed as that was starting to bloom) the white clover, the gill goes over the ground, the violets, the hawkweed, the daisies.
The dog roses and blackberries trying to widen the perennial border got mowed. They hurt to step on barefooted, but they hurt to pull up barehanded so it's a toss up. Besides, soccer balls and basketballs aren't supposed to go near the perennial border and a little negative reinforcement of stepping on a mowed over rose or blackberry sounds like Karma to this overprotective gardener.
Because I had let the lawn go to meadow, I set the old mower on the highest setting. I am not sure why I did that, because the two times I mowed last year (the second time I mowed all the leaves as well....) I had it on the middle height setting.
I think I was afraid I might burn the lawn because it had been hot and sunny and dry, and our lawn has turned to crisp in the past.
Peko thought it was the perfect height.
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