Yard Work

One of Scott’s favorite aspects of living in China (and being a “renter”) is the fact we have a gardener that takes care of the lawn. Despite his extreme disdain (and his complete ineptitude) for yardwork, he has never before outsourced the function (primarily due to cash flow constraints).

Our gardener comes three times a week and does the mowing, the watering, the planting, etc. The yard looks good now, but at one point this summer, after weeks and weeks of us complaining the lawn needed to be mowed, all the grass died. It is our theory that he mowed it and then euthanized it so he wouldn’t have to mow it again during the heat of summer (Scott has actually taken note of this in case Annie balks at the hiring of a yard man when we are again homeowners).

It could be worse - at least our gardener does have a mower. Often you will see gardeners butchering an otherwise beautifully manicured 2000 square foot lawn with a weedwacker while a pal comes behind and rakes up the clippings. This method can take an especially dangerous turn when the “wacker” accidentally takes a large divot from the earth and the debris punctures the “rakers” bare legs.