Lawn Care Nightmares

I've been spending considerable time, energy and money lately on lawn upkeep. This includes planting flowers and shrubs around the mailbox, pruning trees, and resodding about 1/3 of the front yard. The latter has been a real pain in the keister and has inspired some rather colorful language on my part. We had to have a maple tree removed recently, and the roots it left behind have been quite an impediment to the whole process. But I'm nearly done with the front, at long last. Turns out I didn't order enough sod to do all the areas in the backyard, but that can wait for another day. It's too frickin' hot to be out in the yard this time of year anyway.

I've been reading Jerry Baker's Plants Are Still Like People to try to edjumacate myself on the whole lawn care thing. It's a hoot. This guy would have me practically live in my yard, spending several hours a day "shampooing" the grass, feeding it weird concoctions (beer and gin?!) and doing a little tap dance all over the place with cleats or golf shoes to aerate the soil. I mean, please. Makes my blood boil.

I'm thinking a rock garden might be a viable solution. But then, my neighbors probably wouldn't be too thrilled with that idea.

No matter how much I grumble about yard work, at least we aren't going through this.