Recreational Mowing

Here we are, summer’s almost over and in northcentral Pennsylvania, the cool-season grasses that constitute our lawns have begun putting on their autumnal spurt of growth. Not as vigorous as its growth in the spring, the grasses’ fall growth will nonetheless probably require weekly mowing.

Personally, mowing the lawn isn’t one of my favorite activities – call me crazy if you will, but I’d actually rather shovel snow. To this end our lawn is small, kept that way through the use of groundcovers and native vegetation.

But it’s obvious that not everyone feels that way, some people have LARGE areas of lawn –

 

Those lawns are fertilized, sprayed and mowed on a regular basis; kept from becoming wildlife habitat or a locale for wildflowers. Large lawns, like our small lawn, require frequent mowing – sometimes that’s done by a hired lawn service, but frequently it’s done by the homeowners on their “toy” tractors painted orange, green, yellow or red. I’ve often thought of those folks playing "farmer" on their large suburban or exurban lots out in the “country”.

 

 

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good friend uses the term “recreational mowing” for what those folks are doing. I don’t know whether he originated the term or not, but it sure seems appropriate. It would be interesting to see if sociological or psychological research has been done to determine why those folks enjoy spending hours, and thereby a good portion of the time they’ll have on this earth, on their weekly mowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they mow, they waste fossil fuel, destroy wildlife habitat and eliminate native plants –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These folks need to get a life and find something useful to do with their time.