I have just begun our fifth season of grass mowing enforcement in Maquoketa. So, with that, let me say, PLEASE REMEMBER TO MOW YOUR LAWNS. And, PLEASE AVOID BLATANTLY BLOWING GRASS CLIPPINGS INTO THE STREET.

This has become an annual message because our citizens truly become annoyed by folks who don't take care of the grass in their yards. This might be Maquoketa's largest "pet peeve" on a community-wide scale.

The City recently ran its annual grass and weed abatement notice in the paper in order to let everyone know that the Police Dept can now send abatement notices to property owners who do not mow.

It sometimes seems strange that we spend so much time trying to get people to do what they should simply do on their own. And, as it happens, year after year, it tends to be the same core group of people who continue to do it. I also doubt that many people understand how much time it takes to process abatement notices then continue to keep tabs on them for the rest of the mowing season. When I was still doing this, before the Police Dept took over, "Grass Patrol" involved watching up to 80 different properties per mowing season.

Please remember, in most cases, if you own property in a residential zone or a business zone, grass and weeds that exceed 6 inches in height is a violation of our ordinance.

A community's appearance is important its image of itself. I am glad that so many of our citizens take pride in their property and also want to take pride in their neighbors.

I have also just begun my third season of doing battle with the grass on our family's lawn, and the lawn is winning.

The yard is quite large. We had to buy a lawn tractor to handle it.

It isn't a John Deere, however. I often feel like I should make this clarification/apology because most of the lawn tractors in our area seem to be John Deeres. In fact, an unofficial survey that I've done indicates that the farther west you go on Swagosa Drive, the higher the concentration of John Deere lawn tractors becomes.

Anyway, when I first used our mower in 2000, I quickly noticed that it threw grass clippings out like a champ, often up to 8 or 10 yards--into the street, into our planters, and into the decorative rock around the house. The tractor came with a mulching option, which is a cap that fits over the side discharge opening. I decided to give this a try.

Mulching keeps grass clippings from shooting all over the place, but the mower has to work harder on chewing up the grass that is held within the deck. This has two effects. It leaves clumps of grass in rows, and it causes the mower's blades to miss grass in between them.

Earlier this spring, I used a drop spreader to put Weed & Feed on the lawn. As far as I can tell, only the "feed" part has worked. The dandelions seem to be unfazed.

The abundance of grass has now rendered the mulching feature of our mower useless. With the mulch cap on, so much grass collects under the deck that the blades cut-out. I took the mulch cap off and now have grass everywhere again.

So far, my battle with the lawn has consisted of a bunch of equipment that all ends with the letters "e" and "r:"

Tractor mower

Push mower

Weed eater

Grass edger

Weed sprayer

Soon, we will escalate to the next step:

Grass bagger.