April 24, 2018 – Rain, weeds and a surprise
visitor, little Raccoon.
We’ve
had drenching rains the last few days and now again today more rain. When we walk on the lawn with the dog, Jack,
the water squishes up and soaks our shoes and it squishes up between his toes.
He is not happy. I don’t blame him, it
is wet and cold. Nevertheless, I feel it
is always better to have more rain than drought, yet, the weeds are getting
ahead of me.
On my to-do list for
several days has been the eradication of the tall yellow weeds that have plagued
my gardens for years. My next-door neighbor was lax on many occasions in not
mowing his lawn for weeks on end. His lawn
would turn into a field of tall yellow dandelion type weeds. They are false dandelions or a sow thistle or
something I haven’t exactly identified. Of
course, the floating weed seeds take hold in the best of my gardens, those
gardens where I have worked in compost and fertilizer. They grow in the blink of an eye and are hard
to hack out.
It has been a year
round battle depending on when they decide to take hold, growing from ample amounts of white
puff of seed that floats around the neighborhood. His weeks and weeks of not mowing created waves
and waves of drifting puffs almost year round.
It is not a matter of pulling weeds once, it is a matter of pulling them
continuously.
Part
of me had a dream of sneaking up there one night with 50 gallons of weed kill
and spraying his entire lawn so that he had nothing to mow turning his lawn
into a barren red clay desert. Then I’d wake up and realize – I was thinking
like that because I’d just eradicated a wheel barrow full of weeds and had
another wheel barrow full to pull out ahead of me.
And, part of me feels
he had a vindictive streak and went out of his way to not mow his lawn so that
the white seed puffs would float around to ruin everyone else’s lawns. Whatever the reason was, it has worked out that
way for many years. Now that he is gone
and his house is up for sale, maybe I can get his weeds out of my gardens in a
season or two.
Hopefully,
when that neighbor’s house is sold, the new owners will be more diligent about
mowing their lawn. Meanwhile, the attack of the tall yellow weeds is right up
there on the to-do list when the rains stop.
At the bottom of this post are a few good websites where you can
identify weeds if you are having a particular problem. It is always nice to know what weed you are
battling in order to win the war.
Lastly,
I had a startling surprise last evening.
We had just finished supper, and I was taking the dishes to the sink
when I was suddenly eye-to-eye with a baby raccoon outside the double windows
over my kitchen sink.
He/she was clinging
to the post holding up the bird feeder and leaned in to look at me for a
moment. I didn’t move wanting to look at
the raccoon closer. We were probably as
close as 24 inches with just the pane of glass between us.
What a moment of
sweetness for me to look at such a live portrait of such a cute animal. White
whiskers, white frosted ears, leathery black paws, shiny coal black eyes and
that unmistakable mask I observed in a few seconds. The word cute just does not
capture how precious it looked. It was hungry and had been vacuuming out the
sunflower seeds from the kitchen window feeder.
In a flash, it scampered away across the drive, stopped a moment to look
back at me, then rumpled ran back to the wild property line.
Yes, every few days
we are reminded that we do live in the country and the country is up-close and
personal for us to enjoy.
Some
good websites for weed identification.
Weedalert – by region – helpful pictures – larger
group
Most common weeds – Better Homes and Gardens
Preen – common weeds by state.
https://www.preen.com/weeds/ga
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