My Dad's Lawn

My Dad, being a military man his entire adult life, developed over many years a regimented routine for the lawn. My dad’s technique of proper lawn care was passed down to me with great pride and with it came a sense of duty…to my dad. My teenage self was mentally punctuating sentences with huffs, puffs, and eye-rolls. This is largely due to the fact that after sharing his knowledge it would become partly my responsibility to care for “his” lawn.

Most of my Dad’s routine was born from his own extensive research about lawn care for the Tidewater area and (sometimes to my family’s amusement) a variety of chemical, natural, and DIY (Do It Yourself) product applications. After a short stint of trying a messy hose-end DIY herbicide that was part beer, dish detergent and who knows what else, he waved the white flag and retreated to his faithful lawn spreader.

My duties of lawn mowing, raking of leaves and attempting to use an electric lawn trimmer were always followed by Dad walking behind with his spreader laying down that week’s or month’s application of fertilizer, insecticide or crabgrass control. Dad was always walking and talking to me about what he was doing. I’m sure to Dad’s surprise some of it stuck!

Many moons later I found myself in a turf class with a professor lecturing on VA Tech’s recommended residential lawn care program.  The professor’s lecture began to ring oddly familiar to me.  It was not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last that I will gladly say my daddy was right!

-Danielle Hendricks