There are several reasons why we deliberately let our lawn grow a little longer that most of our neighbors. I don’t have the time and the money to hyper-fertilize and water my lawn only to cut it back down twice a week. Our lawn therefore is thinner and needs to be grown more to look green. Moreover, there are studies which suggest that children with autism are more affected by weed killers than typical people. Finally, we share our lawn mower with my brother-in-law, so that we can go in with a nicer mower that gets utilized more than the average mower.
I don’t know whether it’s funny or sad to think that someone feels so strongly that my lawn ought to be 2″ tall (we prefer 3½”) that they have mowed my front lawn while we were gone. But it’s been done, twice as of today. Apparently we do have our share of obsessives in the neighborhood: the homeowners association has threatened to revoke the membership of people who have painted their mailboxes the wrong color.
It’s a very strange deal. My lawn would not violate any civil codes. I was even going to mow it two days ago, but it rained. Yesterday, the brother-in-law wanted to use the mower. When I get it back, I’ll mow the backyard.
Nobody fesses up. One person at one time had offered to mow my lawn at the same time he mowed his. We thanked him and refused, and we explained what was going on. Our lawn isn’t mowed by the mystery lawn mower at the same height as his. Is he changing his mower height to cover his tracks? Who knows?
I could decide to be annoyed at the deal. A “No Trespassing” sign seems a bit rude. A sign: “please give me a call if you’re the lawnmower man” would be kind of funny. A security camera is expensive. On the other hand, I could just say, they are using their lawn mower and their gas to do what they think is a good deed. I hope they at least knock on the door to see if we’re home before they get started.
It’s possible it’s just someone who saw the longer grass and said “I’ll help them out” not realizing that you intentionally keep it longer.
We mow ours at 4″ It’s really, really obvious when it needs mowing because it looks like a field of clover!
Yeah, I do understand how the person who would do this is doing it in an act of charity, and I don’t want to dissuade that person from helping other people out down the road. But a conversation to understand what is going on would have been nice.
And it is even more disconcerting that it is only done when we aren’t home. The amount of time when there is absolutely no one at our house is quite small. So I question as to whether someone is actually watching to see us ALL leave before they mow.