Today is the first warm Saturday we’ve had so far this year in Chicago. As is typical we whipsaw between unseasonably cold and unseasonably hot. We’ve had unseasonably cold weather for the last several weeks and now we’re having unseasonably warm weather. Not extremely so—it’s in the high 70s right now and may go as high as the low 80s. Typically, we’d expect the mid to upper 60s.
As is also typical of Chicago on the first warm weekend of the year, people are out in force. Home Depot was busy with people buying gardening and lawn supplies, experiencing sticker shock at the price of fertilizer. Some were wearing facemasks; most were not. I have not worn a facemask when out-of-doors throughout the pandemic and I was entirely out-of-doors today.
So far today I have done some lawn prep and planted some lettuce in peat pots small enough to bring indoors easily when the weather turns cold again as it undoubtedly will.
Over the decades we have lived in this neighborhood we have gone from nearly everyone tending their own lawns to nearly everyone having a lawn service. We are among the hardy few who do not employ a lawn service. I have no intention of doing so until I am a doddering ancient which is still a few years off yet.
This afternoon I plan to mow the lawn. Then I’ll put weed and feed on the front lawn and seed and fertilize the backyard. With our conventional city lot that shouldn’t take an hour from start to finish.
