I didn't mow the lawn today, as it was way too hot outside. By my standards, when the temperature is in the mid-eighties and humidity is high, it is too hot out. Maybe tomorrow I will mow, but not today; it was too hot, and now it is too late.
In case you weren't paying attention, it's that time of year again: mowing season. The time when the grass starts growing, and you have to keep trimming it because otherwise it will become unsightly and unmanageable, due to its prodigious length. And then, all too soon, you have to mow it again!
One of the biggest problems with mowing the lawn is finding the time to do it. This is especially a problem if (like me) you have a large amount of ground to cover. Mowing the front and back yards is always a two-day event, never one-day. Even with the gas tank of the mower full, I have never been able to complete the back yard all in one go. And by the time the mower runs dry, typically I'm too tired and hot to even think about putting more gas in and finishing up.
The weather also plays a significant role in scheduling when the grass gets cut. In the interests of not getting heat stroke, I avoid mowing during warmer days (today, for example) entirely, and during warmer parts of the day. Typically, by about 11:00 - 11:30 in the morning, things are really starting to heat up, and it's only going to get hotter as the day wears on. Unfortunately, by the time the temperature starts to cool down, it's getting late - as in, late enough that the neighbors will complain about the noise. And besides, the sun is getting pretty low in the sky, and mowing without much light just isn't safe.
So, mowing late is out. What about early? Well, try mowing too early, and there will be a whole new set of problems to deal with. Well, technically, it's just one problem, but it can (and will) produce many complications. Them problem? Dew on the grass. You've got to let the grass dry off first. Wet grass is harder for the mower to cut through, and clumps together very well. This clogs up the mower, meaning you have to keep stopping to remove the grass clumps that are stopping the blades from rotating, and restarting the mower. Because of the resistance and the frequent starts and stops, you'll be using up gas, so less progress will be made in the actual mowing of the lawn. That, and the water might soak through your shoes, which can be an unpleasant sensation.
So there's about a one hour window in the morning where the grass is actually dry and the temperature is still bearable. That's where (or rather, when) most of the mowing happens (for me, at least; I don't know about you).
The growth of the grass is typically slow(ish), and typically it only really becomes noticeable when the neighbors mow their lawns. Which isn't all that bad, unless you've got neighbors like ours, who seem to be almost obsessive about keeping the lawn trimmed, and are out there mowing it practically every week. To be fair, they have much less space to deal with (our back yard is at least twice the size of their back yard).
Like many things in life, the grass creeps up on you. The change (here, the growth) is so subtle, so slight that you don't even notice it changing from one day to the next. It's only after a long period of time has elapsed, and some alteration has occurred to make the difference more visible that we fully appreciate the difference between where we were, and where we are.
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