Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

One of the best ways to keep grass
cutting a. pleasure, and not nuisance,
Is to determine just about how much
of the lawn one wants to do at one
time.
This thing Of spending all afternoon
upon the lawns around home may do
very well for the hired man, who is
used to it and paid INTO the bargain,
but 1t becomes somewhat tiresome to
the average home owner.
It is best for this gentleman farmer
to decide in his own mind Just what.
portion of the whole he desires to do
at one time; and to resist the tempta-
ton to do more, once he has completed
the allotment.
Heaven will not fall If the lawns to
the rear Of the home are not done on
the same day that the front grass is
completed. While there Is something
picturesque and trim about a newly
moved lawn, few grass plots are SO
good that they do not gain by the
length Of the blades.
Usually It. takes two or three days of
growth, after moving, to put the
lawn back. into as good an appearance
as 1t had before the cutting. This
would not be the case, of course, II
every man had perfect turf, but how
many do?
1t Is well for the home owner If he
gently gives up the idea of perfection
in so far as grass is concerned. There
are few matters over which he will
worry so much, II once he gets the
bug" There are few which are worth
such pother and this is not one Of them.
Grass like a carpet"-why should
grass be like a carpet? Rather, 1t
should be like grass. Go into the finest
natural meadows, where cows love to
browse and dream, and there you will
find no perfection.
Looked at with critical eyes, the
best meadows are far from perfect, but
the creatures love them, and surely
they make fine pictures.
~
1t is better to cut grass slowly, and
thoroughly, than to slop through an en-
tire yard at a standing, leaving borders
untrimmed and tufts of long grassstick-
ing up.
The advantage OF the piecemeal
method advocated here lies not only
in the lessened physical labor, but in
the greater amount OF neatness which
one may achieve. If the grass itself
is not to be perfect, the work done
on 1t may be, to o great extent, at
least.
What II It has to be done all over
again next week? Think of the house
wife, who no sooner gets her dishes
sparkling than they must be washed
and dried again.
These repetitions are a part Of life
and 1t IS only those with special axes
to grind who would keep insisting on
the dullness of their inevitability.
We should be glad for the job which
has to be done over, for 1t proves that
we have lived long enough to see its
need, again. Ours not the static per-
lection of angels in paintings, forever
flying with unwearied wings, but never
gaining an inch on space; ours Is the
mutability of imperfect human beings.
who had to wait thousands of years
for wings, and then were afraid to use
them at last, so many Of us.
A lawn IS an ever-old, ever.Ilew prob
lem. The cause Of yonder bare spot
may be debated as seriously as the cause
of any war, and perhaps with far surer
and more satisfactory results, for We
may do something about the spot, but
nothing about the war.
Make the lawn problem a play prob
lem, II you can; at least make it in
teresting work, not drudgery, and you
will be rewarded in a hundred ways.