The Green Meanie

I've always heard people who can grow stuff referred to as having a Green Thumb. Well, since I'm the opposite of that I guess I'm the Green Meanie.

As the snow melted off this Spring it became obvious that some issue had developed with a section of our front lawn. We've had landscaping people look at it and they all are stymied. Everyone rattles off a list of things they think it could be, but then they eliminate all of them pretty quickly because it looks like nothing they've ever seen that have those conditions.

It's very disconcerting. When we moved into our house I thought to myself, "Finally! With a sprinkler system and established grass, surely we won't embarrass the neighbors with our lawn here." HaHa. Right!

So, I contacted the folks who put the lawn in months before we ever bought the house and the girl I talked to looked our address up and informed me I had called on the last day of the warranty. I won't go into all the long litany of interactions that followed. Suffice it to say that I essentially reached the point that I realized they were not going to honor the warranty after being told by their own folks that it was very weird and like nothing they had seen and acknowledged that the grass had never taken root in the areas where the mange (that's the name we've given the condition) had set in. It's like it was sod that had just been put down today except it was dead. It could just be lifted up with no roots and a smooth dirt bottom existed on the downside of the dead grass rug.

(Side note: Later the same day I called the landscaping company when I checked the mail I had gotten a letter from our HOA manager informing me that if the problem was not corrected we would receive a fine. Good grief!)

So, while I was standing in Home Depot, grass repair supplies in my buggy, I made one last attempt (I owed the landscaping company a payment on the backyard sod which had been put in a couple of weeks before) to leverage my position and attempt to get my hands on some of the scrap pieces which I had seen evidence in the vacant lots in our neighborhood were cast off after an installation. This time though, I was not so nice with the guy. I shared with him how VERY frustrated I was at the lack of communication the company provided through most of my dealings with them to date (except when they wanted money... they were very timely and persistent in those contacts) and with the lack of willingness to accept responsibility for sod that never took root but appeared only to grow on the surface for the previous year. I emphasized how frustrating it was that during my first contact regarding the issue I was informed that it was the very last day of the warranty only to be told the lawn was now out of warranty when I finally got to talk to anyone to follow up. So standing there with $55 dollars worth of repair supplies I pleaded to be informed of a location where I could stop by and pick up some of the scraps that were to be cast off from an install which I could piece into my mangy spots.

To my surprise, after discussing the approximate square footage of the areas affected, the guy asked if they could drop off several rolls of fresh sod at my house later the week when they came to collect the check for the work completed in the back yard. I was shocked. I just about fell over. Finally! I jumped for joy, put my repair supplies back on the shelves and headed out of the store.

Yay! Maybe my neighbors won't be embarrassed by my mangy lawn anymore after Thursday! I wonder if I should have someone else affect the repairs so my greenie meanie-ness doesn't kill the repair grass or what's left in the front?