Teen age logic

There are more than a few lawn maintenance entrepreneurs here in the park, kids and adults both. A young fellow named David put up an availability notice by the mail boxes, with tear off strips of his name and phone. That has all the hallmarks of a mother behind it, but I took one nevertheless. My lawn mower is gone, and lord knows, I once was cited for a weed.

As luck would have it, I encountered David, trundling his lawn mower and shouldering his weed wacker between my house and my neighbors. A citeable offense, by the way. I asked him if he would be interested in weeding my garden.

Well, he didn't know. We went out front to take a look. One weed in particular has taken up residence. It grows tall, with long pointy leaves, green, and the centers have a mahogany hue. I pointed them out to him, and demonstrated how easily they came up from the very wet soil.

Well, he'd have to think about it. It would take a long time. I bit my tongue and told him if he got it done in an hour, I'd pay him fifteen dollars. If it took more, I'd pay him twenty. If he decided to do it, knock on my door to get paid.

He appeared the next day. I gave him a bucket and he set to work. I heard him empty the the bucket several times into the trash bin. At the end of an hour I went out. He had all the designated weeds pulled, and was attempting to eradicate the grass at the street. I told him it had been an hour, thanked him for a good job and gave him his pay.

David was in no hurry to move on. He told me his parents had a flower garden at the "other house". I could tell the idea of a flower garden at a trailer park was quite novel. He wanted to know my garden's destiny and I said we could only hope the next tenant cared for it. That left him perturbed.

"We drove by the other house once," he volunteered, "and they hadn't done anything. All my mom's flower gardens were just a mess." I told him things like that happen sometimes.

"I can move all this for you!" he volunteered, all at once.

That tugged, for a second. Then he said, with a sweep of his arm, he wouldn't want to move the stuff down there, pointing to two thirds of the plants. He pointed to the coral bells as OK, to move, and maybe the Stella d'Oro, but certainly not the sedum or the wooly thyme. That was the differentiation between easy and hard. 

I thanked him for his offer, and suggested he might offer the new tenants his weed pulling services. I understand an older couple is coming to see the unit in a couple of weeks.

The Stella's are beginning to bloom, and these pretty little bulbs: