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Monday, June 10, 2019

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:





   

42 comments:

  1. cited for a weed? Oh you are a rascal! You paid that kid very well, he was probably thrilled! You new garden will be just as beautiful as the "old house". I am glad you can find help!

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  2. Logic is a rare beast it seems (or what I understand as such).
    Loving your blooms. I do hope the new residents care for your current garden and am looking forward to seeing what you create in your new home.

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  3. Young entrepreneurship. That's good you helped
    him on his way.Perhaps a future Warren Buffer...:)

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  4. My first job was pulling weeds from a garden. I was about 10 years old. It was a big garden so it took 2 days. I was paid $2.00.

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  5. Goodness, what kind of weed would get you a citation?

    Your Stella d'Oros are gorgeous. They need deadheading every day, though! I'm not good at that. Ours have been getting more and more crowded out and I may not have to worry about it anymore.

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  6. Gah, I didn't finish! That just won't do :)

    I'm glad you encouraged that young man in his quest for work. But not too MUCH work. lol

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  7. Only the easy plants. That's kids these days for you.

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    1. I almost fell for it. When he offered, I though the hell with the cost. But he disabused me, pronto.

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  8. His entrepreneurship reminds me of this guy who used to come around to My Rare One's house in the winter offering to shovel the driveway. But he only ever came after a light snowfall. If it were a heavy snowfall that involved major work, he was nowhere to be seen!

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  9. I was threatened over my weeds once upon a time too. My husband had just died and my rider lawn mower was too big and I couldn't operate it. I decided to let my two acre lawn in the middle of woods get back to a more manageable half acre or so that I could do with the little lawn mower. Apparently that isn't allowed. Once we start cutting back the rough stuff, we have to keep it cut back. On the upside, the repair man who came to alter my machine so I could operate it has been living here for the last 11 years and now does all the cutting!

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  10. I’m not sure that he’s going far, but he got the job done. I like daylilies and don’t like the Stellas.

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  11. I know here if some one was cited for weeds they would be an up roar. But I'm sad to say if your out side of the city limits you can just toss your trash. Private property laws are important here.
    Coffee is on

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  12. It say so much about, that wherever you go, beautiful plants seem to appear. Nice boy, I know other residents will see his work.

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  13. You will find some way to have flowers in your life! I hope this boy turns into someone who loves plants.......But maybe there is not that much chance. I'm not sure.

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  14. Industrious young man though selective in what he'll do. Glad your weeds got done and hopefully this will be the last time they have to get done at your old place. Such pretty blooms; glad they did bloom for you to enjoy before your move.

    betty

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  15. Are you taking some of the perennials with you? I am sure they will take if you plant them and keep them watered. You could always taking cuttings too? I think David will always be busy.

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  16. It will be a shame if your garden is neglected by the new owners, but hopefully David can talk them into a weekly or monthly weeding program.

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  17. Good luck with the move tomorrow.

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  18. Hari OM
    At least you are leaving the garden as best it can be. IF David makes himeself known to the newbies, it may remain that way... YAM xx

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  19. How do they tell the difference between a weed and any other flowering plant? If you had daisies in your lawn, would they cite you for that?

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    1. Come to think of it, if the same grass as that lawn was growing in a different place, would they cite you for weeds?

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  20. I hope the young man continues his entrepreneurship. He has a lot to learn but that comes with time and experience.

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  21. You are good at striking bargains. I would have given up when he was hesitant to say yes to weeding.

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  22. Eagerly awaiting your move! Do post with pics!

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  23. Where we live now, half the neighborhood leaves for the summer. The HOA people seem to take a perverse delight in notifying people that they have a weed growing. We ended up spreading great goo gobs of Preen and Casoron (pre-germinants) so hopefully they won't sprout after monsoon. Your flowers do look nice in the garden.

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  24. half my gardens would probably cited as a weed. you should at least have him move the Stella de Oro. I'm sure you can find a place to tuck it somewhere next to the new house.

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  25. I'm in love with the Stella D'Ora picture. I hope you can find a way to bring that with you.

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  26. Sounds to me as though you will miss your flowers Joanne.

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  27. So glad you and your car are on the road again. Especially glad about the weed puller.
    Isn't it good news about John and the new job?

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  28. His mother's plan to get him out from under her feet and away from his Phone seems to be working well.
    Good luck tomorrow!

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  29. His mother certainly deserves credit for getting that boy out of the house. Good luck with the move.

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  30. Leaving your precious garden must be hard on you. I've dealt with 'workers' like that kid. Awfully selective.

    XO
    WWW

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  31. If we got cited for weeds in my neighborhood, everyone would have a citation.

    Love,
    Janie

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  32. With those rules, I would be imprisoned for my rampant nettles. Which I don't regard as weeds, of course.

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  33. A weed? Must be an ex-military guy running the place. I was a military brat so our yard had to be in great shape or my dad would get in lots of trouble and then I would get in lots of trouble because I was responsible for the yard.

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  34. Dear Joanne, I scrolled back through quite a number of your postings to discover why you were moving. You have really been busy. I'm glad you posted a blueprint of the layout of the unit as well as later showing us the actual rooms and telling us where you would put the loom. Moving, I discovered 10 years ago when I was 73 is a difficult undertaking filled with numerous decisions. Many of them niggling. I hope you have finished with that stage now. I think you must be in the your home today because if I read correctly you were moving on the 13th, which was yesterday. Like you, a walk-in shower was essential for me when I moved 10 years ago. And oh, does it make a difference to have safe I feel when taking a show. The hand railing along the three "walls" of the shower are so helpful. If you don't have those, please consider adding them.

    And by the way, not only did the move discombobulate me!!!!!---I often feel discombobulated by life even now.

    I so hope you are enjoying being in your new home. Peace to you there.

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  35. I would love to pay someone to weed our flowerbeds and save all that endless labour. Trouble is there are so many flowerbeds and so many weeds it would be mighty expensive.

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  36. I love your flower pictures, very pretty.

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  37. I'm assuming you are deep in the throes of your move now.....good luck.....we're all waiting to hear how it went.

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  38. You are so nice, Joanne and very generous.

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  39. Good to encourage a young kid. I think it is a good idea to have a flower garden wherever you live, can't quite see the objection if you happen to be in a trailer park. The trailer parks in Britain usually have little gardens around each unit and seem cosy and pretty if they are residential. . And the "colonie" homes in Germany are homes from home. But the ones for vacation only usually are usually kept mown and clear, I guess because people aren't around to look after them so much. Maybe you can write about this in a post someday, to explain...

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