Back to the Rake

Once upon a time, my husband (MH) and I bought a house in suburban New Jersey. He was going to take care of the lawn, I was going to take care of the flowers.

Over the years I learned about what plants deer will destroy and the importance of fencing. He learned you had to do the first mowing before the ground ivy got too thick and bloomed.

What deer can do to a canna, even in a cage.
(Margo D. Beller)

But then a strange thing happened: We got older. Now we watch how we walk to avoid falling and hold onto the staircase railing going up or down stairs. Now, despite my exercising, I must warm up before lifting heavy items such as the canna pots I have in a cage to protect them from deer. MH realized his knees had gotten so bad he could no longer do the mowing (though he'll still walk around with the seed spreader twice a year). I found I couldn't help him with the mowing either due to various ailments.

So we had to do like our younger neighbors and hire someone to do the lawn work. (Other chores we hire out now are gutter cleaning, house washing and shoveling the driveway after a snow storm.) However, unlike our neighbors we wanted someone to come only when we asked because I did not want a weekly bill for mowing dirt in the middle of summer. 

So first we used "a guy" we were recommended who did lawn work on the side from his regular job. Then he recommended "another guy" to replace him after two years. Then the "other guy" went on disability from his regular job. Last year I called a new, small service I'd seen around the neighborhood and got exactly what I didn't want - someone coming every week. Worse, we had to be home to pay in cash.

MH mowing the ground ivy in 2017
(Margo D. Beller)

This year, I called a local service that has done business in my town for years - as it happens it is the same company that plows us in winter - and the owner was OK with coming only when I called.

That took care of this year's mowing. Now it was time to take on the falling leaves and, worse, black locust pods. I've written a lot over the years here about the "joy" of raking pods and leaves. MH and I used to do it, but, again, we got older and lifting that heavily laden tarp became extremely difficult.

So as I saw this year's leaves pile up in the back and the pods drop in the front I was enjoying the idea of doing nothing thanks to the service.

Wrong.

It wasn't their fault. The two guys who came created quite a leaf pile for our town's public works guys to remove. MH and I had gone to lunch as they were starting the job. When we came back they were gone but there were a lot of pods on the lawn. Had they not done the front yard?

Well, yes they had. There were pods in the leaf pile, I saw. But I did not want to see pods when I had expected a green lawn. So, back to the rake.

I remembered I enjoyed going out early in the morning and using my quiet rake to pull pods towards me and push them down to the curb. I enjoyed listening to the birds and the satisfied feeling of a job well done. And so, for the millionth time, as I raked I cursed out the person on my town's shade tree commission who thought planting black locusts along my street was a good idea.

[There are male and female trees. The females have the pods. I am lucky that my property has three male and the one female. Other neighbors on this street have more female trees, and so more pods.]

I was making good progress even as the wind blew some of the piled leaves back on the lawn and more pods fell from the tree, mocking my effort. I realized these pods I was now raking had fallen between the time the lawn service left and we returned home. I expect tomorrow the lawn will look like I'd never gone outside. 

This year's leaf pile. Note the pods already on the lawn since
I raked. (Margo D. Beller)

Mind you, this female locust tree lost a big hunk during this year's July 4 windstorm, bringing down a ton of green pods. But the tree's remaining branches made more. [At least my tree didn't take out power lines, like one of my neighbor's trees, which put us in the dark for three days and destroyed a car parked on the other side of the street.]

Maybe I focus too much on getting the pods off the lawn. But at least I can still wield a rake when I must.