Most summers, it rains a lot due to typhoons. The grass gets really high and is seldom mowed. I measured last year and the piece of grass I chose to measure was 5 feet long. No kidding. The mowers were hired to cut grass once a month at most, and sometimes it was less frequent than that. Mimi would go walking in the tall grass and would disappear from sight.
This year, they mowed the grass once in May, and then we had a heat wave. The grass appeared to have died and everything became like dust. There was nothing to mow. The bald spots on the lawn made me sad because I felt it was unlikely they would plant new grass in its place.
Then in the last week or so, we've had some rain and the dirt spots are filling in with grass the color of spring green. It didn't die after all, it just was hiding out under the dirt!
The photo above shows their method of mowing the grass. They use weed eaters to cut the grass in the entire apartment complex. It gives the lawn an uneven burr haircut. And many times they fail to pick up and bag the long cut grass, so it smothers the grass underneath it.
Chinese people don't have their own personal lawns, and those who are not maintenance workers have never had to mow a blade of grass in their lives. It's not quite an art form here. They are magnificently artistic at landscaping with trees, rocks, flowers, etc., it's just the actual grass part that suffers from inattention.
Every now and then I get a yearning to take over the lawn at my apartment complex; I think I would enjoy making it look nice. But then a nap beckons me and I get over it quickly. They wouldn't let me do it anyway.
