Wednesday 25 April 2012

#231: Yellow Peril


There is a reason that many retirees have such great yards.  You know what I mean: dandelion free lawns, well-swept sidewalks, mulched beds.

I am tempted to say that these folks have nothing better to do, but that would be unkind. Because I am retired, too, I know that the Yard Nazis just have different priorities and perhaps a bit more free time than the rest of us.  

I should get the dandelions in check, however.  I can see them marshalling their forces on our front and back lawns and it won’t be long before we are surrounded.  My proactive, retired neighbour has already been on the job with his special dandelion weeder (the kind that looks like a really sturdy fondue fork) and proudly announced that in just a few hours he had removed 58 dandelions, roots and all.

Good for him.  At that rate, I will be spending the next two weeks in the yard.

Or perhaps I can try my Kiwi friend Elizabeth Macmillan’s trick with salt.  Take a box of salt, and pour about a teaspoon into the center of the dandelion before the flower has formed.  Except that Elizabeth made it sound like jolly fun when she advised me to “pour the salt down their little throats and watch them shrivel!”

Then again, I could just learn to embrace dandelions--eat a few, pick a few, and enjoy my yellow lawn.  They don’t last that long, anyway. 

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