The Grass Is Always Greener...
...after a little fall of rain.
Not the ending you were expecting? Me either. But oh, what a lovely surprise Monday evening! Not only was the high for the day just 72 degrees, but it was cloudy almost all day Monday, too. This isn't great for beachgoers, but was such a relief for the nascent lawn (not to mention that looming water bill — lalala!). I only had to run the sprinklers for 10 minutes Monday morning, since the cloud cover keeps evaporation at bay. And then with actual rain that lasted for several hours...! I am hoping to go a whole day today without having to water. One of the predicted "scattered thunderstorms" for this afternoon might be too much to hope for, but it's still cloudy again today, so that is helping. Here's what we've got so far in the back lawn after 9 days:
...on the other side.
Obviously the grass is greener next door at our neighbors' house, but did you know that this cliché is rooted in literal truth? It turns out that the grass actually does look greener when you look at it from an angle (as in looking across the way at your neighbor's yard). This is because when you look at the grass under your own nose, your angle of vision is such that you can see directly down through the grass to the soil below. Like looking at a pencil standing on its eraser, if you're right on top of it, all you see is the tiny, sharp point. A good example is the photo above: in the foreground there is mostly brown dirt, and further in the distance you can see more green (and of course, tufts of crabgrass that we missed when we tilled).
What we need here is a change of perspective. If you look at the same bit of lawn from the side path at a lower angle, you get a whole new view:
I shit you not.
When we get closer to the ground and take the long view, things look much better. So sayeth the gardener.
Not the ending you were expecting? Me either. But oh, what a lovely surprise Monday evening! Not only was the high for the day just 72 degrees, but it was cloudy almost all day Monday, too. This isn't great for beachgoers, but was such a relief for the nascent lawn (not to mention that looming water bill — lalala!). I only had to run the sprinklers for 10 minutes Monday morning, since the cloud cover keeps evaporation at bay. And then with actual rain that lasted for several hours...! I am hoping to go a whole day today without having to water. One of the predicted "scattered thunderstorms" for this afternoon might be too much to hope for, but it's still cloudy again today, so that is helping. Here's what we've got so far in the back lawn after 9 days:
...on the other side.
Obviously the grass is greener next door at our neighbors' house, but did you know that this cliché is rooted in literal truth? It turns out that the grass actually does look greener when you look at it from an angle (as in looking across the way at your neighbor's yard). This is because when you look at the grass under your own nose, your angle of vision is such that you can see directly down through the grass to the soil below. Like looking at a pencil standing on its eraser, if you're right on top of it, all you see is the tiny, sharp point. A good example is the photo above: in the foreground there is mostly brown dirt, and further in the distance you can see more green (and of course, tufts of crabgrass that we missed when we tilled).
What we need here is a change of perspective. If you look at the same bit of lawn from the side path at a lower angle, you get a whole new view:
I shit you not.
When we get closer to the ground and take the long view, things look much better. So sayeth the gardener.
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