prairie point

When I moved out of the city I thought that I was out of the grass mowing business forever. However I am belatedly coming to the realization that this is not to be.

Most of our little 8 acre spread is woods and little or no grass grows under this canopy. Even around the house itself we have very little grass. The previous owner had a preference for St Augustine there and within a month after we moved in that lawn was history thanks to the drought and my “no watering” policy. Now it is covered year-round in a layer of old leaves, except for where we are building our flower beds.

But actually I have a lot of grass!  For starters there is the strip between the road and our fence.  Technically the county mows this; except they do it only twice a year.   In the winter after a wet summer like the one just past there is a constant danger of a match thrown from a car, if the grass is left tall.

Then there is  the field that the previous owner cleared for his horse.  It’s a little over an acre of grass with a few big trees.  And there are also a few clearings in the woods too.

None of this has been mowed for a year.  And most of it is grasses that get three foot tall or more.

My only tools to cope with all this is what I brought with me from the city - an ancient gas-powered push lawnmower and a couple of string trimmers.  The lawnmower has been refusing to start.  Probably it’s frightened to death by those three-foot tall grasses.  The best tool I have is a string trimmer that’s been fitted with  a  kind of swinging plastic blade.  The regular strings are almost as good except they have to be replaced every 15 minutes or so.

Recently I’ve entertained the idea that I would just burn the grass in the horse pasture.  Except there is a burn ban and it isn’t likely we are going to get rain any time soon. So obviously I am going to have to find another solution.   I can’t see myself mowing down an acre of three-foot tall grass with a string trimmer.  Maybe I should buy an animal that eats grass.