I feel guilty about the state of our tiny backyard. Perhaps I’ll post a picture of it so that my readers can give me their advice (but today:

• my allergies are pretty bad, and
• it’s Saturday, and
• I start a new job on Monday, and
• I just don’t feel like it, and
• I would rather rest).

My husband and I have lived the student life for so many years that it is hard to get into the mindeset of taking care of a lawn. And perhaps it’s difficult because we don’t own our house. Or perhaps the guilt is simply worse since we don’t own our house.

One big problem I have is that I know nothing about plants. We have only one plant in our entire house – a Snake plant that requires virtually no care – which was bestowed upon us by my husband’s parents.

Other problems I have with lawn care:

• I don’t really know what is a weed and what is not.
• I actually feel guilty watering the brown patches on our lawn because I don’t want to waste water.
• If I pull out the tangle of leafy things overtaking our lawn, I fear it will look worse!
• I can’t bring myself to use the electric lawn mower provided for us by our landlord, because it’s too loud.
• I don’t want to buy a push-mower because we don’t own our house.

Sigh.

But sites like this give me hope. It is one family’s answer to the problem of knowing little about nature.

The study is guide by the book Handbook of Nature Study and you can jump in and follow at any time.

I would really like to give it a try – I’ll let you know if I get around to it.