The Crabgrass Queen

The radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.

- Henry Ward Beecher

In most of the country, spring is here. In Colorado, we've had hail and snow this week, but I'm guessing spring has to be coming soon, even though the weather reports keep describing the "winter storm" that we're experiencing in April. Anyway, I love the warm weather and flowers and green leaves that spring brings. It also brings a lot of people out working on their lawns and, while Lucy and I have enjoyed working on the flower beds (full of now frozen seeds) in the past couple of weeks, the whole lawn care thing stresses me out a bit. I don't like pouring chemicals on our lawn and, as a result, our lawn usually looks pretty crappy. And then I feel bad that it looks crappy. It's a conundrum.

This is why I loved Robert Wright's article on lawn care this week. (Click here to read The Dandelion King.) It sums up my feelings exactly. Apparently some other Boulderites feel the same way. (Click here to read The Dandelion Spraying article) I like the idea of a natural lawn movement. (Long live dandelions! Long live crabgrass!) It's not about not caring for your lawn. Actually, Toby and I have declared tomorrow to be "lawn care day" (which, admittedly, is an annual event). It's about deciding that a chemically-altered unnaturally green lawn shouldn't be considered beautiful anymore. So how about this year we leave screwing the world to the golfers (actually Tiger, I'm not talking about you), and embrace the scrubby, wholesome, natural lawns that nature intended.