My Neighbors Hate Me

It is not to early to buy plants

With the garden departments in full swing, I finally feel like it is not too early to start buying different plants and herbs for the season. However, my garden is non-existent at the moment. I have a somewhat large yard and have been remodeling my house for the last three years. Now the inside is finally complete, I have moved my efforts to the outside of my home. It’s a love hate relationship.

 I’m fighting an uphill battle with my weeds

 The “lawn” is made up mostly of weeds.  My boyfriend wants to help me with my yard, but he is highly allergic to the grass. When he weed eats for me, his whole face swells up and he turns into a mouth breather. Due to the random yet frequent rain, it’s hard to keep up with the growth. Starting in the front, by the time he finishes the back, the front needs to be weedeated again. I can feel my neighbors’ judgment as they drive past daily. He decided he is done weedeating until I find a mower because it’s growing too fast. 

Being too cheap to purchase a new one, I’ve been hunting Facebook MarketPlace for weeks. Of course now that I NEED one, I can’t find one. Some sellers were unresponsive. One told me I was number 7 in line. A lot of people have great luck on MarketPlace and furnish their entire homes from it. Continuously striking out, I remained hopeful. 

I should have just bought a new lawn mower.

 After weeks of searching, my coworker gave me a very nice electric mower that worked well. The only problem was that it does not run off of batteries, it needs to be plugged in. There are extension cords running through my yard and I have to hold them out of the way like a vacuum. I did not mind it at first, but I did feel silly because it was clearly meant for a cookie cutter yard and mine is not. Then I began to feel the judgment even more when my boyfriend saw me using it. He reiterated to me how ridiculous it was and how the neighbors would certainly be laughing. With three extension cords, I still couldn’t reach the outsides of my yard.

He sent a video of me using it to his dad and quickly received a phone call where the two of them laughed at me “vacuuming” the yard for 20 minutes. The call ended with his dad giving him a riding lawn mower that retails over $3000. We were both so grateful!

Things were looking up

The next day my boyfriend trailered it over 2 hours to my house. When he went to start it up, it did not run. He dedicated 8 hours on a Sunday to getting it running. It was raining that day and multiple times my neighbor came over to try and help him get it running. I think he was just excited to see I was trying to clean up the yard. After hours of working on the carburetor and switching out the battery and front wheels, the motor did not turn over. We took a trip to the auto part store and gas station for fresh fuel  to discover there was a crack in the fuel tank. The new gas was spitting out everywhere. 

Now as we wait for parts in the mail I reflect. Am I “that neighbor”? I am trying to clean it up but it is so hard because the home had years of neglect before my time. As my neighbors’ immaculate yards put pressure on me to clean mine up. I wonder if they just appreciate the efforts or if they just laugh at me from their windows. If my neighbor is reading this, the lawn will be mowed soon. Cheers to Spring, may your gardens be prosperous!!

-Delaney Rodgers