homeowners - do you enjoy doing yardwork?

[007ELmO]

it isn't?

 

[Jeff7]

Yardwork...a reminder of why I'm still pretty ok with renting.


My ideal "back yard" would have a high roof over it, maybe some kind of high-impact polycarbonate or some such material, and otherwise be fully enclosed. Climate: Something warm and dry, with various succulents all over the place.


Many people fought and died to bring us indoor climate control technology, and I'm not about to allow their deaths to have been for nothing.

 

[nickbits]

I will add that I don't hate it as much as I thought I would before I bought my house.

 

[mmntech]

I don't own my home but I do most of the heavy yardwork, unless it involves getting on the roof. Power washed the deck this past weekend, set up the patio furniture, caulked up where the wasps were getting in, sprayed one of the bushes that has a powdery mildew infection, seeded some bare patches on the lawn.

If the rain holds off, I need to amend the soil in my vegetable patch this weekend. I'm deliberately holding off cutting the grass because it needs to thicken up. I need to tell myself not to buy too many tomatoes this year.

I'm hoping to buy property in the next couple of years. I like having a garden, and it's one of the reasons I'd rather buy a townhouse or small home than a condo. That and I'd like a basement to work on my RC models.

 

[SearchMaster]

My biggest issue with yardwork is that I have very little free time and I somewhat resent spending time on the yard.

I live on a large lake, and the first year we bought the house I spent a LOT of time on the yard, clearing out neglected property, adding flower beds, etc. When the summer was over, I realized we'd gone out on the boat and enjoyed the lake maybe 3 or 4 times the entire summer and the rest of the time had been spent on yard work. I vowed not to do any more than the minimum on the yard...I cut it often (minimum once a week, usually twice) and occasionally de-weed the flower beds and trim the shrubs, but I'm no longer likely to take on any projects of any size (no longer keep a vegetable garden for instance) unless I can do them during the fall and winter months.

 

[lxskllr]

Yardwork...a reminder of why I'm still pretty ok with renting.


My ideal "back yard" would have a high roof over it, maybe some kind of high-impact polycarbonate or some such material, and otherwise be fully enclosed. Climate: Something warm and dry, with various succulents all over the place.


Many people fought and died to bring us indoor climate control technology, and I'm not about to allow their deaths to have been for nothing.

:^D

I actually love outdoors, but I don't like caring for it. I like things fairly rugged and ungroomed, so most of isn't difficult. My big problem is lawn mowing. I absolutely hate it, and consider it nothing but a waste of time and resources. My ideal house site would be in a woods in the middle of a boulder field. No grass at all, with ferns and moss being my yard greenery.

 

[NetWareHead]

You are probably right, for all I know he is putting roadkill in there. He is a little odd.

I've composted meat before. My father raised rabbits when I was growing up and after every slaughter, all the entrails, skins/furs and blood were buried in his compost pile. No smell. If I have buried meat in a pile, I'll wait a little longer for it to decay before turning that section over. I also use a compost starter (looks like fertilizer) that contains all kinds of beneficial organisms that accelerates breakdown.

 

[rh71]

well shit - i went out to look at the leaf blower and it does vac/shred. the previous owner of the house left it for me and I only used it once to blow leaves and never really looked at it closely. gotta figure out how to convert it to vac/shred mode.

There's other attachments that you need. The blower tube you're used to is narrow while the suction tube is much wider in diameter to allow for more leaves to get through at a time. If it's anything like mine, the bottom fan on the blower (dual-purpose) is the suction fan & shredder so that's where the suction tube attaches to. Then you have a bag attachment where the blower tube was before. Basically swap in 2 pieces and it's converted. If you don't have it, contact the manufacturer for parts.

 

[Saint Nick]

I don't like it particularly. I like to work on my house rather than my yard. I honestly don't care about my yard. I let the grass die, but keep the garden wet. I also keep it from looking "bad" so the neighbors don't complain :awe:

 

[J Macker]

I've given it consideration. I've wondered if shock collars would keep them on my property. There's also local ordnances to consider. I don't see why people should be allowed to keep noisy, stinky dogs, but goats are a problem.

I will tell you this; it takes about 6 adult goats to keep a 1/4 acre pasture down. Grass grows fast. We only have 3 goats right now, but had 8-9 just 2 years ago. Now I have to mow the pastures, so we need more goats.

The nice thing about goats vs. a cow or horse, is the size of the poo.
Goat poo pellets are small and easily mix in with the grass. Cowpies must be picked up or you will get a very lumpy pasture very quickly.

Also, goats will not eat the grass down to the roots like a horse does.
They are very tame and I can't imagine why any city laws would prohibit them. It's much better to have a goat mow your lawn than having to pick up dog piles.

 

[pontifex]

There's other attachments that you need. The blower tube you're used to is narrow while the suction tube is much wider in diameter to allow for more leaves to get through at a time. If it's anything like mine, the bottom fan on the blower (dual-purpose) is the suction fan & shredder so that's where the suction tube attaches to. Then you have a bag attachment where the blower tube was before. Basically swap in 2 pieces and it's converted. If you don't have it, contact the manufacturer for parts.

there is a much wider tube. i found a manual online and it seems like I attach the vac tube to the air intake on the side and the blower is where the bag attaches to.

 

[DrPizza]

I will tell you this; it takes about 6 adult goats to keep a 1/4 acre pasture down. Grass grows fast. We only have 3 goats right now, but had 8-9 just 2 years ago. Now I have to mow the pastures, so we need more goats.

The nice thing about goats vs. a cow or horse, is the size of the poo.
Goat poo pellets are small and easily mix in with the grass. Cowpies must be picked up or you will get a very lumpy pasture very quickly.

Also, goats will not eat the grass down to the roots like a horse does.
They are very tame and I can't imagine why any city laws would prohibit them. It's much better to have a goat mow your lawn than having to pick up dog piles.

The number of goats per acre varies from one patch of land to the next. I can assure you that the 24 per acre isn't even close on my land (marginal soils.) Though in a week or so, I plan on locking them out of one of the pastures, plowing the whole thing, fertilizing, getting the pH right, and reseeding. (And hoping it helps a lot.)

The rest - goats in suburbia - they're far quieter than dogs. They smell less than dogs. They don't have large pieces of shit - instead, it's just little pellets, just like a rabbit.

Drawbacks: they looooove things you'd rather they didn't eat; and in fact, prefer a lot of other things to grass. I'd let them mow my back yard, but I have a few hundred invested in fruit trees, and I know that they'll eat the bark off those trees (killing the trees) as soon as they discover them. And, their shit doesn't stink.

 

[007ELmO]

do women care about men who do yardwork is the question

 

[EagleKeeper]

The number of goats per acre varies from one patch of land to the next. I can assure you that the 24 per acre isn't even close on my land (marginal soils.) Though in a week or so, I plan on locking them out of one of the pastures, plowing the whole thing, fertilizing, getting the pH right, and reseeding. (And hoping it helps a lot.)

The rest - goats in suburbia - they're far quieter than dogs. They smell less than dogs. They don't have large pieces of shit - instead, it's just little pellets, just like a rabbit.

Drawbacks: they looooove things you'd rather they didn't eat; and in fact, prefer a lot of other things to grass. I'd let them mow my back yard, but I have a few hundred invested in fruit trees, and I know that they'll eat the bark off those trees (killing the trees) as soon as they discover them. And, their shit doesn't stink.

Wrap the trunks with small hole chicken wire.

then you can have your mowers.

At least they do not take the groiund bare like some sheep do.

 

[EagleKeeper]

do women care about men who do yardwork is the question

3-4 hours of yard work and my wife is happy to let me veg the rest of the day

 

[pcslookout]

I have people who do the yard work for me.

 

[Jeff7]

:^D

I actually love outdoors, but I don't like caring for it. I like things fairly rugged and ungroomed, so most of isn't difficult. My big problem is lawn mowing. I absolutely hate it, and consider it nothing but a waste of time and resources. My ideal house site would be in a woods in the middle of a boulder field. No grass at all, with ferns and moss being my yard greenery.

Maybe it was Rain Man who came up with our lawn care behaviors.
- Got to have the right density of grass.
- No weeds, can't have weeds. It must be kept pure, with a master race of grass dominating. (Wait...that one might not be Rain Man.)
- Must be mowed in straight, alternating rows.
- Uniform height, has to be uniform height.


The only thing I'm not keen on with trees is their relative lack of self-preservation. If the forest survives, great. If one falls over onto a house during a windstorm...oh well, that sucks a little bit. The stump might still resprout something and keep growing.



I visited the US Botanic Garden once. I loved their Desert Room. A bit on the warm side, but it was bright, contained, full of plants, and dry. So, I'm slowly accumulating some succulents of my own now.