r.whosit: Beautiful Yard!

I mowed today. The yard looks awesome! (See pictures below.) After I was done, I looked out over the deck to notice that I have a real dandelion problem. What to do? The yard looks great except for the little yellow weeds growing randomly. People are coming to look at the house tomorrow so I want it to look its best.

Then I found the answer in 4 little girls who were tearing the inside of my house apart while I made the outside lovely. I offered them an "incentive" to help me. I gave them buckets and told them that if they picked all of the little yellow flowers out of the yard I would take them for an ice cream. It worked!! They finished the entire yard in less than 15 minutes! Now you can't even tell that I have a small dandelion problem. Next, I need to go back out and spray them. The weeds, not the children.

I also have crab grass. After much research I have found that it will take years to get rid of it. The remedies I have heard of so far are to spray it with vinegar, pour boiling water on it, cut it low and then spray weed killer on it, put on a pre-emergent, put on a post-emergent. All of which I have tried. I had the most success with the cut it low and then spray it suggestion. It worked...at least I thought it did. It looked like it was dying and left a huge brown spot in the yard. Then a few days later it came back.

I think, if we are still in this house, I'll try the other option which is to bring in topsoil and re-seed each spring and fall. That will bury it, improve your soil, and thicken up the grass which will of course keep the weeds, including dandelions, out anyway. It will be expensive but in the end it sounds like it will make the yard look amazing.

I heard it's going to rain the next few days so I'll have to get my sprinklers working after that. Last year I had to make all of the sprinkler heads higher. That was fun! NOT! The kicker now is that I made them one notch too high and now we have to mow around them. I lost several of them last year and already one this year. Nothing like spending $10 here and $10 there on sprinkler heads.

I really need to get out there a weed my flower beds. There are two flower beds that need desperate attention. They'll take a lot of man hours to make them look beautiful. Did I mention I have 15 trees, 6 flower beds, and 22 rose bushes? Well, I do. And I love it. I would love it more if I could spend more time out there. Oh, and had the money to do the things I want to.

I'm just not sure how much more I should put into the house and yard since we will be moving. Oh I wish someone would buy my house and let me stay in it! I love my house, my neighbors, my neighborhood, and my ward. I can totally see myself living here forever! Sometimes life isn't what we want it to be.

For now, I'll have my beautiful yard, and beautifully painted inside, and love everything else while I still can.

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Here are some pictures of the house from this morning.

They were all taken before I mowed.

Post mowing pictures tomorrow if it is sunny.