Summer on the lawn

Last fall a strip of our yard got torn up by the township, while they were fixing pipes underneath, so I had a chance to start from scratch on seed. Purchased: bag of wildflower mix, bag of loose Penn State grass seed, bag of white clover seed. Here are a couple of the little highlights. The little white cluster of flowers is some kind of spurge, I think, but I have no idea about the little lavender star shaped flower. Unfortunately it is going to get regular mowings, and unfortunately my reel mower is reelly dead - I think it has stripped gears. It is only 3.5 years old, and a Brill, but I don't know that they intended it for regularly mowing 1/2 acre lawns...so I need to go dig out the warranty.

It is summer. We find ourselves on our own lawn, admiring the garden flowers as well as whatever is hiding in the grass. My roses don't demand anything sharply - or else they know I would just trim them to the ground - and I don't have any throaty cabbage calls, but the tomatoes are fighting with the potatoes, and the snap peas are threatening to pull down their rabbit fence. No matter, because they're all growing wildly, loving the frequent rains we've gotten. For the girls at least, school's not out officially, but that never stopped me from turning off *my* brain at the end of May. Time to stop thinking and start watching what grows.

A Weed by any Other Name...

I got my very own book in the mail yesterday!

http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2070

It isn't yet in the bookstores, but you can order directly from Beacon. Just in time to cancel your lawn service! Or to feel virtuous as you watch the spring's crop of weeds emerge in your garden and lawn. (Though I have to confess, I've already been pulling a few from my flower beds, while I've been sowing clover seed in other places.)