HARRIS: New possibilities growing

I am suspicious, as the leaves begin to fall, they will serve only as a colorful insulating blanket for the grass so it can continue to grow.

Grass mowing is new to me, but mowing is a part of Ottawa and the surrounding area’s symmetry. Lawns are similar to a fine tablecloth on a dining room table. The cloth binds everything together in balance — china, silver, etc. So it is with lawns.

No matter where one travels, there is an inherent neatness to everything, farm and city alike. Everything is clipped and ordered. Now that fall is here and the weather is cooler, the majority of Ottawa maintains its balanced symmetry. Lawn mowing continues unabated.

The multi-colored leaves now falling are but an additional palette to the symmetry, and the gradual shift from endless green to pastel hues of red and yellow are, in many ways, like decorations on a Christmas tree: adornments that merely exemplify the fact that underneath the grass still grows. ’Tis the season for mulching mowers.

Ottawa’s natural symmetry is as much aural as it is visual. Every weekend the sound of mowing echoes down the avenues. I have yet to see any hardy souls with push mowers, but riding mowers abound for those with larger lots. And youngsters are pushing their mowers and trimmers down the sidewalks, one last chance for a few late summer bucks before the snow shovels come out of the garage.

I was wondering if local residents were thankful they have seasons — many parts of the country don’t. It’s difficult to set one’s internal clock to fall when, for example, Florida has but one season that varies between wet and wetter. New Mexico has seasons, but the seasons have nothing to do with mowing. I spent too many hours mowing down sparse weeds and raising clouds of dry bean-field dust.

So, Ottawa offers new possibilities.

What I find interesting is the method by which people attack their grass. By studying the method, you learn a lot about the people behind the lawns. Whether mown horizontally or vertically — or, in the case of some of the larger Victorians sitting on corner lots, diagonally — lawn maintenance displays either a labor of love or a “get it over with” attitude. Whether they know it or not, everyone has a statement to make with their mowing and there are a lot of statements out there, some good, some not so good.

Perhaps therein is a sad commentary about our times: that the condition of a lawn is, in itself, a statement regarding the inhabitant’s social or economic symmetry.

Can one really judge an individual or family by the condition of their lawn? I hope not, but Ottawa obviously places great value on those who can and a fast reprimand for those who can’t.

I’ve been told about a gentleman living notoriously close to the city limits who was issued a citation for a supposedly unkempt lawn. His response: “It’s not a lawn, it’s a pasture.” Makes sense to me.

Eugene Harris is an Ottawa resident. E-mail him at scribester7832@att.net