Green Green Grass of Home

It has been exactly a year since Paul’s CAT scooped up the yard and deposited it next to the garage. There it sat all summer long growing weeds and occasionally providing a slalom run for our niece’s two boys.  When the exterior of the house was completed the CAT performed its last task and moved the topsoil back into place. I spent days raking rocks into piles and leveling out the soil until Chris arrived and took me back to Chicago for the winter.

Wild turkeys inspect dirt pile

Heavy equipment dig up the lawn

Three months later, I was back on Cape Cod and faced with the monumental task of starting a lawn. Most of my friends don’t know this about me, but I spent years attending HORT classes at Essex Aggie in Massachusetts.  However, my education failed me in the face of 5500 square feet of dirt.  It didn’t take long to disabuse myself of the notion that I could handle this project alone. So I called Paul and he arranged for a bobcat with the good-looking driver to help me on a Saturday.  We worked so long and hard that by the end of the day I could hardly stand up straight. Once Robbie the driver left for a dinner date with his girlfriend, I headed for a hot shower and a double dose of ibuprofen.

Re-spreading dirt for the lawn

On Monday I bought 50 lb bags of lime, organic fertilizer and grass seed. I rounded up all the old hoses that I could find and finally located the spreader under my mother’s house. Then I marched across the yard broadcasting pellets and grass seed all over the place. Regardless of how easy it looks to run one of these spreaders, I found that it took some technique.  Finally, I screwed the hose onto the faucet and turned it on.  There was water spouting out everywhere. My face was soaked as well as the side of the house and every hose connection was leaking.

 Furious, I called Chris in Chicago to complain.  Patiently he reminded me that the hoses had been used all summer by the construction crew and had probably been stomped on and driven over a few times. A new hose seemed liked a good idea. However, when I turned this on it also sprayed all over the place. Nevertheless I kept watering because I knew the seed had to be kept wet. Soon the lawn was almost as drenched as I was.  

Now watering has become my foremost task.  I stand in the yard sporting my black and white rubber boots wielding the hose, as I will my grass seed to germinate. However, by week’s end the watering duty was suspended when heavy rain storms moved-in from the Midwest, and I helplessly watched as my grass seed washed out into the street where it would be run over by passing cars.  Eventually the sun did come back out.  It warmed up the earth and at last little green blades of grass formed a haze over the front yard. Every day the grass gets stronger and I marvel at the way nature succeeds in spite of the antics of the well-meaning gardener.