A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.  ~Doug Larson

T he consequences of Procrastination is like that ever multiplying interest on your loan which never seems to abate and can have huge repercussions with time. In short,never let your problems get out of hand. However my backyard garden which was previously nothing more than layers of concrete and gravel is now an ever growing thick lush of weeds. If it is not unhindered soon enough I am going to have a jungle of a problem at hand.I am gnawed by guilt all the more because Its not that I had not been warned before being handed over the property. Somehow I never really got the chance to mull over the seriousness of it.

I hope that by the time this blog ends I  have accomplished what I had set out to do-namely exterminate the troubling weeds. Meanwhile I just finished reading The Perks of being a wallflower. However as it ended I  was reaffirmed in my faith that a good book is timeless and ageless.To some who have not yet had the opportunity to read this one, its a coming of age story of a teen-ager which is in the form of letters that the boy writes to an unknown entity .We soon learn the connotations of the word wallflower-

Somehow I was overcome by raw nostalgia when as kids we used to enjoy our meals at the table with our parents and siblings and bonded over the last episode of our favourite television show.When the best gift we got as kids was not a Apple I pad but a new crisp book with its invigorating smell.The days when our best friends and worst enemies were our siblings ,when we actually called up and spoke to our friends rather than texting and not to forget our various escapades with our friends,those moments which made us feel infinite.

Simple in writing and interspersed with various universally true words of wisdom ,the book takes you down nostalgia lane like no other.It is also saturated with every cluster of issues which could have taken effect on you or your entire neighborhood .Perhaps a thing that I miss is having is a teacher like Bill who introduced Charlie,the protagonist, to a world of great literature!

So I set off on a quest to rid my backyard of the devious weeds. For a lot of people it is a day’s work. However for me it was going to be no mean feat. Mainly for the following reasons.

• I am as new to gardening as a new born is to the world.
• I was to do this unassisted as DH is away for most part of the day and it also depended on how co-operative my two kids were going to be.
• I have quiet an unhealthy fear of the Unknown; not to forget this was about meters of sheer overgrowth.
• Australia is quiet notorious for its creepy crawly creatures.

Day 1

I gathered all my equipment which I thought I might need-

1. Some gardening gloves
2. A gardening shear
3. A weed kill
4. A trash bin; bigger the better                                                                      
   

   

   

   

    

 The first day was about trimming at the growth on the edges and sides which were between ten to fifty centimeters in height  and simply dumping in trash. After much labor and lot of panic at any bug that was spotted , I soon realized it was quiet a challenge at hand.After an hour’s work and two trash bags later, I threw down the towel.

Day 2

Quiet unwillingly I set off to my task,  I was only driven by the will to finish the task at hand. After precious much time had passed I realized that the weeds are really soft growths which were not deeply rooted except for some long wild plants which were quiet lengthy in height . Although the sight of countless snails lying around was not a welcoming sight I decided to go ahead with it. About 2/3 of the backyard was cleared and it had been quiet a satisfactory day of work for me.

Day 3

If there was a method of work it ceased to be a long time back, it was more about pluck and go. Even the trash bin was no more in use as the discarded stuff lay in mounds in the garden which had to be cleared. After hours of  such an exercise a few changes which came upon me:

• I was no more paranoid about anything except I had a cautious curiosity about what could be around me
• I somewhat liked the earthy smell of the grass and the earth.
• After hours of work (honestly it took about 5 hours in total) their was a certain feeling of tranquility within not to miss out on how instantly one falls asleep at night.
• Not to forget the sense of satisfaction.

Snails

An unidentified black bug with a red tint

 Now all  that was left was to  dispose off the plucked weeds, which would be an easy task considering all  residents of Australia have a gardening trash bin at their disposal provided by the community government. However I am not inclined to repeat my mistake of procrastination especially when it is regarding the backyard, ever again. Weed kill sprays would be done in time whenever the sun would be out , I promised to my self. Guess I would not be needing this after all!