A Father's Playground Plea: Save the Children from Sandburs

Whenever our son is playing in a playground, my husband often scouts around in an effort to remove any hazardous items. Immediately you might think of things like broken bottles; but what many parents may overlook are those horrible sandburs that cause excruciating pain. Lately, he has launched a crusade to eradicate our playgrounds of sandburs and has come up with an excellent solution. Here, in his own words, is my husband's solution to the sandburs problem.

"Sandburs-I hated them as a kid. In late summer, they grew in a corner of our huge garden and ruined many a perfect day by causing horrible pain where they penetrated my flesh. Then the miserable task of pulling them carefully out of my shoes-socks-pants inevitably led to another one or two sandburs sticking in my skin.

Back then, we just put up with the sandburs; we didn't know we had a choice. I forgot all about sandburs until my own kids were tortured by them, and in playgrounds of all places. It's amazing how many sand-filled playgrounds inour area are teeming with sandburs. Many are at grade school playgrounds waiting to greet the children upon their return in September; traumatizing them again, and again.

However, by September it is too late to do anything about the sandburs because they are fully formed; no longer attached to the grass plants that produced them. Sandburs are lurking everywhere, looking for children to attach themselves to. They want to be transported somewhere else to plant themselves. It's a clever design for a grass.

But parents, if you have this problem in your child's playground, there is something you can do about the sandburs, but you have to do it right now. In mid-summer, sandbur plants just look like a harmless grass and only a few of them are starting to produce their seeds (the burs). At this stage the sandburs are very easy to find and pull up so do it now. Then, repeat it in about two weeks.

If you do this, there will likely be no sandburs this year. You might have to repeat next year, but that should finish them off-really! Get some friends together and go out there today. Find a sandbur that's "blooming," and recognize the pattern. They are a grass that spreads out from a center and has red at the first part of the stem. Pattern recognition will allow you to get them all. And save your children a lot of misery."