The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep. And a lot of yard waste to pick up before I sleep.

I don't know if you know this, but I control the weather. Yes, I can make the wind blow. All I have to do is make a concerted weekend effort to clean up my wooded queendom and, inevitably, there will be a windstorm within 2 days, 3 tops. Down come tree branches, leaves, and assorted messiness from the trees (and sometimes the trees come down too). The Palace grounds never look cared for for more than a day or so.

The royal closets can wait, but the yard can't. That greenwaste bin gets picked up every two weeks whether there's anything in it or not, and the lawn grows so long as the rains do fall. I find that I resent the time yard work takes away from battling the household crap pileup, and have been working for several years to reduce the amount of it.

The storm wrack is the price I pay for living in the woods, and I accept that. The woods were here first. The lawn is another story. Who was it that first thought that lawn in the forest was a good idea? Was it a golfer? Was it the moss killer manufacturers? (It seems to just to amuse the moss, makes the lawn ugly and leaves a considerable hole in the royal treasury.)

I've researched and identified three ideas that I hope will permanently reduce time spent on lawn maintenance:

1. Electric mulching mower

2. Environmentally friendly Eco Lawn (front yard)

3. Replace backyard lawn (2/3rds of total lawn area) with eco-friendly rain garden and planter beds

I've had the mower for two and a half seasons, and it's working out pretty well. It's a little wimpy when the grass is damp. But it works, is quiet, and unlike a pull mower, can be started easily.

The Eco Lawn was planted last fall. It needs some weeding and overseeding to fill in a few thin spots, but is otherwise thriving. The seed mixes, developed at OSU specifically for the Pacific Northwest, are low maintenance, low growing, and drought tolerant. With properly amended soil, they are also supposed to crowd out moss due to their suitability for this climate over that of conventional lawn seed. I planted the shade tolerant Rough & Ready mix that requires little supplemental irrigation or fertilizer once established, and is better suited to acidic tree-hung soil. For more information, see http://www.protimelawnseed.com/ .

The back yard rain garden and planter beds are just my dream of Camelot at this point, but I have hopes. Stewardship Partners is offering free rain garden workshops in the Seattle Metro area throughout the months of April and May. For more information, check out the events calendar on their web site (link provided under this blog's “Resources” list).

It's Saturday morning, it's April, and the sun is shining brightly. Time to get outside, top up the yard waste bin, and charge up the lawn mower. Greenwaste crap, say your prayers.