What Ever Happened to Pulling Weeds?

My grandmother like many other grandmothers always had flowers and plants everywhere.  In addition, she always had a healthy garden full of good nutritious vegetables.  It was a labor of love like no other, to her, those plants were almost children.  They needed loving care and someone to ensure their wellbeing.  She weeded everything by hand, even her grass/lawn!

But alas, that was yesterday, and this is today, a world where we must now depend on a chemical made by wealthy oligarchs, to eliminate those pesky weeds.  A chemical that the US judicial system has overwhelmingly determined to be risky to our health.  This solution kills by destroying cells of healthy biologicals (yes, weeds are that).   So, you must ask yourself; is this really the best way to fix the problem?

I have always been fascinated by the obsession people have with their lawns/landscaping.  They will seed them, spray them, manicure-mow them and in the case of those with a few more bucks, a guy with a truck will show up and spray them.  Flower boxes are no different, what can’t be made beautiful with plants is covered by the latest designer mulch product.  The wealthier folks, of course, have gardeners and landscapers who turn a labor of love into a casual affair.

For those who want the good look of a manicured landscape, but are limited by funds, you have the gardener/landscaper in a bottle.  There is a bottle of chemical for any gardening/lawncare/landscaping situation out there, especially for those pesky, unwanted little indigenous greenery that seems to grow with no help at all.  We want these weeds gone now, but grass be-damned, we are not going to bend down and pull those vegetation varmints.  Instead, we will soak them with a carcinogen chemical and watch them die a hideous death.

Lest we forget, that every time our skin comes in contact with these solutions, we run the risk of growing a tumor.  But tumors be damned man—this is yard care!  I guess it is worth risking life and limb to have that magnificent looking yard, but it seems to me like we are way too obsessed with it.  And never at a loss to make profits, corporations have seized on the opportunity to made yard/lawn care as stressless as possible.  And chemical companies, in their mission to develop a weed killer that works in 5 minutes or less, have stopped just short of using nuclear waste to eradicate those little annoyances.

I guess my point here, is that the search for a better mousetrap for weeds has led us to newly found toxins that now endanger our lives.  This is where the customer has made it easier for greedy corporate pricks to prey on their need to have more while doing less.  We are too busy in our daily little lives to take time out and just enjoy the simpler things in life and we are always looking for an easier/faster solution.

I am trying to picture my dear old grandmother if she had all these modern conveniences in the yard that she dedicated some much love to.  Maybe she could have baked more pies, knitted more blankets or hell, maybe even take a spinning class—I’m just saying!   It’s hard to picture my grandmother with a bottle of one of these poison chemicals.

And for that matter, why do we need the perfectly manicured lawn/landscape anyway?  Is it a pissing contest between neighbors?  Is there a prize awarded in heaven when you die?  “Well John, you did covet your neighbor’s wife, but hell your lawn sure looked good, welcome to heaven”.  We are already drowning in a sea of plastic and just keep buying those plastic bottles of toxins.  Maybe it is time to start pulling weeds again.

Talk To Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer @2019 All Rights Reserved