Je ne sais quoi

"How come my neighbour's lawn looks so much better than mine when he does nothing to it?"

The answer is, "I don't know".

After all, you live next to your neighbour, I don't. Yet I am assuming you have a job and go to work everyday, you do social activities, go away for weekends/ holidays, have a life to live?

In other words you're not sitting in front of a window with a telescope pointed at your neighbour's lawn 24/7...or at least I hope you're not?

So how do you really know what your neighbour does to his, or her lawn?

Of course if they sneak back a little weed-and-feed, or grub killer over the border every year on that trip to Florida their lawn is going to look excellent. But are they honestly going to divulge they put a little something-something down when they know it's illegal?

I know this is going on a lot more than you think, because many people have told me they are doing it to keep their lawns under control. Is your neighbour one of them?

Again the answer is, "I don't know".

I do know the weed gnomes do not magically appear at three in the morning and haul away all the dandelions. And I also know a healthy green lawn doesn't get that way by itself- it takes some effort.

Look, I too, have a few neighbours who don't have lawn companies and who I never see working on their lawn other than cutting it. Yet both their lawns look as lush and green as mine...sometimes even better.

I fertilize, I aerate twice a year, I over-seed, I apply commercially mixed Fiesta for weed control and still they have no problem keeping up.

Understand this, the lawn care industry still has many tools to help your lawn get to where you want it- soil testing, low maintenance grass seeds like Eco-Lawn to name a few- it's just, without the old methods, it doesn't transform overnight. Yet, whether you use a razor or a butter knife you can still cut a rope and every year they are developing a better butter knife.

So back to your neighbour for a moment and his certain something.

Let me ask you this:

If your neighbour dances over the grey line to get a few bucks back on taxes does that bug you too?

Under the current bylaw there are only two paths to choose from here - play by the rules, or cheat. At fines that range to $200,000 a lawn I think I'll stay on the safer road.

Oh and BTW, the picture above is one of the lawns I take care of with a butter knife.

So, how come your neighbour's lawn looks so much better than yours when they do nothing to it?

The answer is, "I still don't know for sure, but I have my suspicions".