A City Guy Learns to Trim His 'Parkway Strip'

I've lived in apartments for 15 years (until we moved to Berkeley). So it took me a while to realize I was supposed to be mowing the patch of grass in front of our house (the area between the sidewalk and the street).

Apparently this is called the "parkway strip." I noticed recently that our parkway strip is in worse shape than anyone else's on the entire block — and that's saying something, since this is South Berkeley.

I don't want to sound like even more of an incompetent dad than I already do, but I haven't mowed a lawn since I was in high school.

But I manned up and I borrowed a weed wacker from a neighbor (she even showed me how to string it).

The end result couldn't be described as "manicured." But I'm hoping it will keep me from running afoul of city authorities.