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| driveway beds May31, 2011 |
Many years ago, when I was going to school in Rome, one of my professors assigned Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes to read over spring break. In addition to being annoyed at having to tote a heavy book through Europe, I quickly discovered that I hated the book. I can't understand how people love it, or the musical Man of La Mancha. I stopped reading it less than halfway through, then read just the end. It did me no harm, I got an A. Why do I hate it, and what does it have to do with gardening? Here's the explanation I gave the boy and the girl when "Don Quixote" came up as an answer to a Quizbowl question:
Don Quixote enters a new town. He mistakes X for Y. He attacks X. He gets his butt kicked. Sancho Panza has to pick and patch him up. They leave town and enter a new town. He mistakes X for Y. Repeat ad nauseum.
Yes, this was the first book I abandoned because of a character too stupid to be at large (CTSTBAL). From then on, any book with a CTSTBAL as a main character goes unfinished by me. But I digress.
The point is that I refuse to play that role, I will not keep doing the same stupid thing over and over in the garden. I will dream possible dreams. I spent an inordinate amount of time pulling black medic out of the driveway beds this spring.
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| That's not one black medic plant, but many, each of which had to be pulled. |
Finally, after a couple of years of battling black medic on the south side of the driveway, I'm changing my tactics and smothering the mess.
There's barely any lawn left anyway.
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| Can you find the grass in this picture? |
My Very Indugent Spouse was on board for the project when I described it, that all the weeds would be smothered, and then grass seed sown to create a new lawn. Then he saw the extent of the project as I started laying down the newspapers, and he asked if I was "going to do all that and it'll be like that all summer?" Yes, I am and yes it will. I have to. If I don't kill it all, it will just come back, and I'm not Sisyphus.
10 comments:
As an avid fan of Don Quixote, I have to wonder if you are metaphorically smothering your imagination? Of course that might be a Sancho Panza comment! ;) Also, I love your blog. It has beautiful pictures and great ideas. Thanks!
This is laugh out loud hilarious, MMD! Way to make the segue to gardening from doing the same stupid stuff over and over. I hope your kids appreciate your sense of humor. I certainly do! The newspaper smother should work great, I am a big advocate of that method. But I thought you were going to lay the papers in the bed, then cover with mulch. Lawn, who needs it? HA
Frances
Excellent and fun read. MMD! I use cardboard to smother grass and weeds. It's heavier and doesn't want to blow away on hot, dry days. You might want to price out sod~it was surprisingly affordable on the lawnette. gail ps I have been known to toss books across the room if the main character is too stupid.~
I've tossed books aside - and this spring I read How to Live: A Biography of Montaigne - and learned that this great man also believed in tossing books across the room if they delight. Even if they were informative, he said they must give pleasure - or be tossed. We are all vindicated!
Ha, love your assessment of Don Quixote:) I never had to read that, but I remember trying three times to read all of Vanity Fair in high school. I managed to get an A on a term paper on the darned book without ever finishing it. Funny that I remember that now--when my students would tell me later about their similar experiences it would make me cringe.
Smothering the weeds definitely sound like the way to go; I hope it works. I often feel like Sisyphus in the garden, too, but never made that connection--thanks for that analogy!
What a pain in the neck job you have, but I bet you are going to get pleasure out of smothering it. My solution, barring chemicals, is what I do every ten years or so. My yard is almost all plants, but the little grass I have gets excavated and new lush sod is laid. The weed filled lawn then gets mulched at the farm along with manure and comes back to me as wonderful growing medium. By then I am digging up beds for a new design anyway. So like you, I love putting my weeds to death because by ten years, that is about all that is there.
Smothering weeds... good trick. We gardeners can learn new tricks!
Okay... I'm giving this some good thought. However, I wonder where I'd get enough cardboard?? Newspaper would have to be secured. However, I WILL put down newspaper on some of my weedier beds this Spring before mulching (if I mulch). I've been unable to work much at all outdoors this year, as yet. Perhaps tomorrow?? Hopefully soon.
MMD, I did a quick scroll down your sidebar... and for some reason, Blogger has my last post on your site as something I wrote 2 months ago. Hmmm, I have been behind here and there, but that's inaccurate...
Wonder what that's about?
May the new and improved lawn stay free of black medic! I'm working on my own Don Quixote tendencies, not always successfully.
The verification word is "suarotas", which sounds like something Don Quixote would encounter!
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