PRACTICALLY STEALING:

With all the rain the Washington area had been getting, it seemed to Tania Castro as if the weeds were growing three inches a day.

She had bought a house on half an acre in Lusby, Md., last year, but now the lot felt impossibly large. A single mom of three kids, the youngest of whom has autism, Castro works 60 hours a week and hadn't stayed on top of the mowing.

By late spring, the lawn had sprouted vegetation so tall and thick that she couldn't get a mower through it, and professional services were quoting her astronomical fees. Castro, 44, was stressed, and unsure what to do.

Then a man with a mower came along, and took care of the whole thing. For free.

Rodney Smith Jr., 28, is driving across the United States in search of people like Castro -- single moms, veterans, disabled people and older people who need help with their lawns.

"A lot of them are on fixed incomes and they really can't afford to pay someone," said Smith, who lives in Hunstville, Ala. Traveling around the country, he said, "I realized that it's a bigger need than I thought."

He has mowed pocket-size yards and vast expanses, with a goal of doing a lawn in all 50 states. And he is hoping to inspire a new generation to follow his example.

Three years ago, Smith, who is from Bermuda, came across an older man mowing his lawn and stopped to help him. Smith had been looking for a cause or a calling, he said, and the experience clicked: He set a goal of mowing 40 lawns for people in need of help. Then he upped it to 100.

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