Last year, we overseeded our front yard. It looked fantastic.

“We have the best grass on the block!” K and I would congratulate each other. It was thick, lushly dark, and totally carpeted our entire front yard.

Over this summer, it all died.

All of it.

We looked at our wretched front yard and looked at what it used to be like, and a sort of “why do we even try?” depression would set in.

But we don’t give up. Not we. We continue to dump money into projects that probably should be left alone. So last week, we rented semi-heavy machinery,

and started all over.

Technically, it was called “dethatching.” Practically, it was called “pulling up all the grass, most of which had long-since died.”

We were left with rows of rubbish — weeds, dead grass, almost-dead grass — that had died for mysterious reasons. Bugs? Disease? (Certainly not fungus: it was too dry this summer for any fungus to survive more than a few moments.)

Whatever it was, we didn’t want it. So ten bags of it went out to the curb.

What a waste, really. It got me thinking — if our lawn survives this coming summer — whether or not I could simply run our mulching mower over the dethatched refuse and let the yard self-feed.

After applying top soil, mulch, seed, fertilizer, and straw, the rain came. After many dry weeks, we had thirty-six hours of continual rain, followed by sporadic showers through the following week.

I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.

A week later: