We Have Grass

I have a wonderful, favorite cousin named Carly. She's six months younger than me and my mom's sister's daughter. Back in the day before widespread email, Carly and I wrote letters to each other (she grew up in southeastern Idaho and I grew up in SC, of course). In one letter, she wrote that she was excited for me to come the next summer saying, "We'll have grass!" What she meant was their lawn would finally have grass--it was a pretty new house and the lawn hadn't come yet the summer before. My mom thought it was slang for having a good time, since in her day grass was a common term for marijuana.

And people wonder where I got the propensity to make distant, convoluted associations from. :)

Anyhow! On Memorial Day weekend, I woke up on Saturday morning to Kurt asking me, "Do you want to sod the front yard?" I immediately answered in the affirmative. There was this landscaped area up front that had once been nice and neat with four little bushes and red mulch. During our extended closing period, no one lived in the house and weeds took over that area. In fact, last year while weeding, I accidentally pulled out on of the bushes because I thought it was a weed. I HATED that area. It was messy and gross and high-maintenance. I just wanted some grass that we (read: Kurt) could keep nice looking with mowing and the trimmer. I spent a huge chunk of time last summer weeding and I've come to the conclusion that no chore is as demoralizing to me as weeding.

It ended up being a really nice weekend--weather in the 70s and overcast. Perfect for working in the yard ALL DAY. We bought our sod from two people off Craig's List, but they knew each other and the sod was all from the same farm. We only sodded that front area and then a little into the yard. To help make the boundary between existing lawn and new sod not so noticeable, we threw seed down. Weeks later, it looks awesome! We actually have a nice yard! Next stop is paving the driveway and painting the house ... then we won't be "those neighbors" anymore.

2009 

 During ... this isn't much different looking than when the mulch was still there.

I love the patchwork look on newly laid sod ... not sure why, just do. :) 

We tied the dogs up out front. They enjoyed relaxing in the nice grass and shade of the front yard and watching us work and all the cars drive by. 

This was about a month ago, during the 3 week stretch that we were getting TONS of rain so our grass was super green and pretty. 

Today, looking all nice and trim after Kurt worked on it last night. Not as green as last month, but it still looks pretty nice. We need to trim the tree again, but are waiting till fall.