If you don't know how to take care of a lawn, find someone who can!
My counterargument to the New York Times advice column
Every time I’d catch my grandfather peering out of his picture window and scowling at someone nearby, I knew he was about to talk about grass. The man had a fruit and vegetable garden so well-kept that he saw no point in going to the grocery store for most things. He even grew flowers for fun.
Along with being a handyman, gardening made him happy. But the one thing he could not stand was people “mowing grass wrong.” He wasn’t as unbearable as this lady, who called the police on someone for picking her tulips. He just didn’t understand why people were going in all kinds of weird patterns.
Recommended Read: “6-year-old black boy arrested for picking a tulip ~ Start talking to your non-black social circle about racism, not running to black people to get extra credit”
He coaxed me into watching people mow grass, just to see what he was doing versus them. Have you ever seen someone vacuum, and there are all these random zig-zag lines instead of neat rows in the carpet? That’s pretty much what his hang-up was. And considering his grass looked like it was waiting for a magazine photo shoot, who could blame him?
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That’s immediately who I thought of while reading this New York Times post from a homeowner griping about a neighbor fixing the lawn. According to the post, the homeowner was trying to figure out why their lawn “magically improved” in various areas of the yard. Turns out that a retired neighbor “can’t stand clutter anywhere” and fixed it for them — for free. Although the husband doesn’t have a problem with it, the spouse thinks this behavior is “invasive and comes with an implied rebuke.” In other words, the spouse is sensitive about anyone telling the couple that they don’t know how to take care of the lawn.
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As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I want to continue promoting cool products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. As of the first date of Black History Month 2025, each new post will ALWAYS include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site to verify that Amazon Black-owned logo.) I am (slowly) doing this with older, popular posts too. If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
The problem with this letter is the spouse is admitting that the neighbor made improvements. And professional gardeners charge anywhere from $60 to $200 per hour. Why create something that’s an eyesore for the block? Why not put that energy into fixing it? If you know someone who can — for $0 — what’s the problem?