Tag: weed eater

Look Ma No Destruction

Sometimes my dogs really surprise me.  This past weekend was a complete blur.  It was nonstop go here, go there and get this done in a two day period.  This meant the dogs had to stay home by themselves and left to their own devices.  This has not translated well for us in the past.  We’ve come home to mass destruction and chaos throughout the house.  It has always amazed me how much mayhem they can wreak in a short period of time, so you can imagine my trepidation at abandoning them for the major part of a two day period.

Saturday morning started off with the first stop of the day going to the grocery store.  We took the dogs and left them barking in the back of the car, which caused the usual head turning and stares of the other patrons.  After the unloading the groceries and putting everything out of harm’s way, the marathon of go here go there began.  First stop was to go watch my granddaughter play soccer.  You can imagine the group chaos with a bunch of three and four year olds running around chasing a ball.  I wish I had brought my camera.  After the “Toddler Pre-Olympic” soccer match, we headed off to Menards in search of a corner shower stall.  The one Mitch replaced four years ago is leaking, so now he has to take that one out and replace it with a new one.  Re-do of a remodel, oh joy. 

We had great success and found what we needed and it was on sale.  Bonus!  We loaded it up and headed home with enough time for me to mow the yard and run the weed eater.  Sunday we spent the whole day helping a friend pack and move all of her belongings to a new home.  It was a rushed move, so a lot of packing was also involved.  By the time we finished up with the chaotic move I still had to buy dog food, because there wasn’t enough for dinner Sunday evening.  I don’t think I would have survived the night without dog food for them. 

Walking in the house with one eye closed in hopes that at least a couple of walls survived the weekend, I was totally amazed to find all three of them patiently waiting at the door for me.  Barking and raising a huge fuss but I would expect nothing less from them.  They had been perfect angels, nothing out of place.  Maybe there is hope.

Flashcards

I think I’ve come up with the perfect solution to our groundskeeper’s good plant vs weed recognition problem.  Flashcards.  Very simple yet elegant as a solution.  Flashcards work for kids in school.  Math and alphabet flashcards have been used for decades.  So maybe plant flashcards would work.  I would take pictures of all the different plants growing around the lake and laminate the photos to plastic cards.  I can draw a circle with a slash through the middle of photo of a weed and even type a description below the photo.  Something like, “kill on sight” or maybe “wanted dead and decimated” for a weed and “diplomatic immunity” or “endangered species” for a keeper plant.  This may slow down the weed eating process around here, but eventually hopefully the groundskeeper will get it and maybe some poor plant souls will be spared the weapon of plant destruction.   Especially the ones I’ve paid money to put in the ground.

The flashcards could be put on a ring and hang from his belt for easy plant recognition access.  The groundskeeper would walk along flip up and peruse the flashcard to scan the photos searching to determine if the plants are public enemy #1 or keepers.  Who knows maybe flashcards will catch on for gardeners everywhere.  I wonder if I should apply for a patent.

Definitely Not A Botanist

Sunday the temperature was around ninety nine degrees and it felt like stepping into a blast furnace when you walked outside.  A great day to sit inside a dark movie theater, munching popcorn and watching the latest movie, or visiting a museum, anything indoors out of the heat. 

But the heat didn’t deter one man, our local groundskeeper.  A very nice man that works hard to mow and maintain the city grounds.  One of his tasks is to weed whack the weeds along the road edge to keep the weeds from growing too tall.  I couldn’t believe he was out in the middle of the day wielding his weed eater attacking the straggly weeds on the other side of the road.  He either doesn’t feel the heat like the rest of us or he has a death wish.  Or maybe I’m just a sissy.

I walked outside to get the burgers off the grill and saw him walking up the road away from my boulder, weed eater in hand and thought surely he didn’t use the weed eater on my ornamental grass that I had just planted a month ago.  Surely not.  Just to be sure I walked down the yard, burgers in tow to check on my grasses.  Sure enough he cut the grasses down all the way to the nubs.  I wanted to chase him down, rip the weed eater out of his hands and club him with it.  All I could think of was the hard work I’d done, digging up the grasses to replant, digging holes in the gravelly ground and replanting the grasses.  Not to mention having to listen to the diatribe from the neighbor, that I placed the granite boulder in the wrong spot.  I carefully watered the grasses until they were growing and looked like they would take hold.  Now the grasses were mere stubs in the ground. 

How could anyone mistake the tall graceful clumps of ornamental grass to common everyday weeds?  Was he blind, using the weed eater as a seeing cane to clear his path?  No, he just has no clue between the difference of a keeper plant and a noxious weed.  The only reason our local groundskeeper is still walking without the need of a cane, was the look of horror and regret on his face, and his comment of “Oh s***” when I explained to him I planted the grasses on purpose that he just mowed down with his weapon of plant destruction.

He’s definitely not a botanist.