Pulling Dandelions

Rather than Pushing Daisies (I believe the final episodes of this show will be airing this month on ABC) today I found myself pulling dandelions in the yard and the adjoining boat launch. It's something I do every year with a tool whose name I don't know. It is a fork-tongued piece of steel attached to a 4' wooden handle. Place the fork-tongue at the base of the dandelion, shove it into the ground, do some lever action to loosen the soil, and pull the dandelion up by the roots. That's the theory. The reality is that half the time, you slice through the root and end up leaving half the root in the ground... to grow once more.

But, it is a "green" method of weed control. All it takes is a couple of hours, a 5-gallon bucket, a few hundred calories and a little dedication. No internal combustion motor, oil or fuel mix. Doesn't use fertilizers with weed-killers that will leach into the lake and cause algae blooms, among other nasty problems.

Many would view this as an exercise in futility. I see it as putting a little time into the grounds-keeping that pays dividends later on. We don't have a quarter the number of dandelions as the neighbors' properties. And pulling the dandelions saves the grass from being "crowded out" underneath the serrated leaves. Doubtless that I am labeled "control freak" in the minds of people who walk or drive by while I'm filling the bucket with the yellow heads and green/purple stems. Well, that's OK. I am a bit of a control freak that way. The truth doesn't bother me none.

If the weather cooperates, I may start planting the garden tomorrow morning. Still haven't quite figured out what I want to put in there this year but it usually consists of the staples of a Northeast victory garden --- zucchini and squash, tomatoes, cucumbers (I let them grow up into an old potting rack) and Swiss chard. For the past several years I've included one experimental vegetable. A couple of years ago, it was Brussels sprouts and last year, sweet corn that didn't do very well, which surprised me. Not sure what this year's experiment will be.