Spring Veteran

 

Spring is the most violent season, and I don't just mean Nature throwing its tantrums of unpredictable weather- hail, wind, frost to add drama to warm sunny hours. Animal that aren't wrapped up chasing each other around in territorial disputes are all busy gobbling, chewing, and pecking. Good bye to any delicate plants that just want to scent the air or add a trill of color to the landscape. What the slugs don't get, the deer will. Moles tear up the ground for new tunnels to sneak between their worm traps. Even more subversive species do their damage under the cover of night.

Plants are just as bad or worse. Whatever energy they aren't using to smother and shadow each other, they use to fill the air with noxious pollen from their bursting blossoms. In their spare time they grow roots and leaves to choke out neighboring greens. Which is what really annoys me because that means that I have to go outside with my blades, chemicals, and broom to beat them back.

It's a war I can't win because I'm outnumbered, but I've learned to choose my battles. Moss in the lawn gets to stay because it is soft. Squirrels occasionally get special peanut butter flavored bait, but only when they start to travel in herds. I have to call in mercenaries when the trees overstep their boundaries because they are too dangerous for an amateur like me to take on. Everything else requires constant vigilance. I guess that's what sunny days are for.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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