Lawn and Garden Weeds

At first you think it's pretty, the fresh, luminous yellow-green of a Grannie Smith apple spreading around the corners of the back yard, the first real color of spring. How come it grew so fast during the last two weeks when those late frosts stunted everything else? You watched two weekends and all those evenings go by that were just too cold to work outside.

At last it's warm enough to go out to say hello. Up close you see the delicate feathery structure, the spiderweb growth pattern of long arms radiating in all directions from the center. Ought to make a great ground cover the way it grows low and spreads, only curving up when it reaches a barrier. Later there will be tiny white flowers.

Yeah, it's pretty all right, pretty as a blue jay. But it's only bindweed, and every bit as rude as a blue jay. It grabs onto everything it can touch and tags along. A weed with wanderlust. Bits of it come into the house on the cat, the dog, your clothes. The touch is absolutely disgusting, rough and sticky. So you put on gloves and start grubbing it up. Now you've got bushels of the stuff to get rid of.

Amazing how willingly it gives up its grip on the ground. Why not, it thinks it's getting to go somewhere. Wonder why there isn't any on the other side of the fence where the cattle graze? Maybe they eat it. Great, you gather it up in huge clumps and dump it over the fence. One creature's weed is another creature's breakfast. This time bindweed's wanderlust is bindweed's undoing. Too bad, you're just going over the nearest fence into a dinner trough.

Tomorrow I get to mow. Goodie.