Slippery thoughts in the shoal

I may have achieved lawn recovery! The raking out of two or three years of weed growth with a thatching rake and pruning a proto-stand of poplars, already two to seven feet tall, has left me with a lumpy but mowable residue of moss, weeds and some grass. I am not worried for the few flowers that might have been in the small cleared area in front of the house, between my llama tended field of colt's foot, the Spring beauties, trout lilies, trilliums, hyacinths, ground ivy and more, insects have have had and will continue to have a plethora of pollen and nectar sources all over my property, both native and invasive. Much better flowers than dandelions.



I saw a grand total of one dandelion on my lawn. Twenty meters west, on my neighbours gigantic, frequently mowed lawn, many dandelions.



I noticed that my garden flowers are not all staying put. Grape hyacinth will not persist where I planted it but has popped up twenty meters away under the staghorn sumac. The staghorn sumac appeared on its own decades ago and is cheerfully trying to take over any open area. At least the staghorn sumac doesn't grow tall enough to bother the hydro line, it feeds murders of crows in the winter and is a nice plant screen between me and the passing traffic, so go grow sumac, I choose youuu! Like the grape hyacinth, I have Scilla serbica migrating away, as well as lily of the valley. The lily of the valley is fine with persisting in the garden (one of the few plants to do so) but suddenly I've found some emerging further into the lawn and clear across the lawn to where I have (also un-killable) lilacs growing into a future hedge. Now what I really really want (so tell me what you want, what you really, really want), I wanna really, really, really wanna, innocence flowers to grow in my lawn.



I removed a huge quantity of brown dead vegetation out of my lawn. I had a mound five feet high and seven feet long. I spread it over a low spot beyond the furthest I've ever been able to mow. It will make a nice nesting area for a cottontail rabbit or maybe a hibernaculum for garter and red bellied snakes. I disturbed a few snakes while raking so I know they're around, snacking on slugs.