Finally, DH is complaining about too much lawn.

[Jared77]

What about some native landscaping? Or a butterfly garden? Something that's beneficial and helps reduce the area you have to mow?

 

[catjac1975]

Goat? Sheep?

 

[baymule]

We will move the secret garden to the south end of the house. There is a clump of trees with an opening big enough for me to build a gazebo. It's a back burner project. Have too many NOW projects in front of it. I planted clematis on the existing cow panel arch, but they haven't come up yet. Have planted other bulbs and flowers, they can be moved later.

There are oaks, American persimmon, found a beauty bush, wild grape vines, just a tiny pocket of forest that will make a great secret garden. The present location will be planted in blueberries this fall.

 

[Smart Red]

I got my Simplicity back today. Just sitting in the trailer waiting for another person to give it a look see. I've decided that it's getting repaired whether I have to do it or not. DS says his friend can do the repairs for quite a bit less than the engine-repair business quoted.

We got the lawn mowed Monday and today. I figure it took about 9 hours between the two days. Today we actually spent a part of the time with two mowers. Ours is back and seems to be working pretty well -- after a period of gross smoking. DS drained the "oil" and it sure enough smelled like gasoline. I fear DH got to the oil before I saw what he was doing. Fortunately, I didn't run the mower once I noticed something was wrong and it seems to have been corrected now.

Of course, we still have the field and the gully to get mowed. That should figure at about 5 hours each if we can keep two mowers going at the same time, but here the grass is tall, weeds are juicy, and mowers get bogged down and plugged quickly. Might have DS try that area with the field tractor and mower. Sure would save time, even if the result is less than 'finished' mown.

As I type this, Gypsy is making shortcake for the strawberries I picked this morning. M-m-m-m-m-m, and soon!

 

[Nyboy]

Strawberry shortcake !!! Doesn't a farmer rent part of your field for hay ? Maybe he will want to rent more space.

 

[Smart Red]

He definitely would, but he already plants as near to the old orchard as he can get and the most of our 'field' (or play yard) is between there and the new orchard. Not a lot of room for his bigger machinery.

And, YUM! It's been many years since I've had real strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits. I usually go with angel food cake when I make strawberry dessert. This was so very delicious! Biscuits still warm, strawberries picked today, and real whipped cream! Yup! Gypsy is a baker -- not a cook -- and she does really well.

 

[Smart Red]

On the theory it didn't happen if there are no photos, here is Gypsy's strawberry shortcake dessert.

I would love to put in a number of grape and raspberry plants so the rows would take up a good deal of room and I still need to prep for Maverick's wildflower labyrinth. Once that is in, there will be less to mow other than once a year.

The gully is destined to return to the grasses that were there when we purchased this property. The old neighbor cut the grass and damaged their growing area when he tried to get the water to flow off his property faster. The grass was the best thing for letting the water through and cleaning it as it flowed. I hope we can get that situation back so mowing the gully will go back to a once a year (or less) task. Right now, the space is trying to regrow into blackberry brambles, creeping Charley, and other assorted weeds so mowing is our only option to keep the weeds down and give the grass a chance to repopulate that area.

Still thinking of options while DH is receptive to eliminating lawn.

 

[thistlebloom]

Red, I know you're probably not in the market for anything else with a gas engine, but last year I bought a Cub Cadet walk behind weed whacker and I love that thing.

The best thing is the way it cuts through the weeds without bogging down. Dh has almost completed the road easement along two sides of our 10 acres and the weeds were over knee high.

 

[Smart Red]

I will check them out on line. I didn't see any yesterday when I took DH "shopping" to look at new riding mowers or mini-sized farm tractors. I'm still drooling a bit when I think of that orange beauty I checked out. $30,000 is way out of my league, so I'll drool and keep shopping.

 

[thistlebloom]

I read a lot of reviews on all the different makes before we went shopping, and the Cub Cadet had the best overall ratings on many different sites. It also happened to be in our budget range ( cheaper than most others).