Crabgrass, Nutgrass and My Own Weeds

Ted and I have been getting a little overwhelmed by the influx of weeds in our yard. We are surrounded by people with plush, green grass. It seems effortless to them. As much as we work on our yard, we can't seem to control the weeds. So we've given up and called the specialists. The first company came by to give their bid. This guy had long, fly away hair with many split ends. It's not like I examined is hair that closely, it just had that split end look...like he's trying to grow his hair longer than it wants to be. Nonetheless, he looked me in the eye when he spoke and he communicated with sincerity. And the thing that rang my bell was his 20 years experience. I love a person who knows what their talking about.

In 5 minutes I got a crash course on weeds. One thing that bugged me about the weeds in our yard was not knowing their names. Once you identify what you have, it's easier to figure out how to combat it. I listened intently while he willingly shared his knowledge. We have lots of crabgrass and nutgrass. Don't expect overnight results, he said. These weeds are hard to get rid of. I didn't totally understand what he was getting at, but before I know it, he's telling me how I should hire some teenager to pull the crabgrass up by the root. What? Are you the weed guy? He said to never pull out the nutgrass because it's really hard to get at the "nut" and you will get about ten in it's place. He said I could use Roundup and slick it over the blades. Things started getting fuzzy here...blah blah blah...can't lay seed until the Fall...blah blah blah. I wasn't sure if he was recommending his company or if I should just hire a teenager. I was a little confused. So I inputed some of my own little knowledge of the lawn.
"Isn't overseeding the best offense to combat the weeds?"
"Yes!", he says. Bingo!
"And until our lawn is established, these weeds can easily come back?"
"Yes!", he says. Yahtzee!

When he was gone, I decided to consult the internet, my trusty source of information. Apparently, with nutgrass, you can kill what is showing above the ground, but there are dormant "tubers" that are not connected to the above-ground leaves and can surface later.

I don't understand. We did all that "preemergent" stuff. Why is this happening? Because we don't have a thick, established lawn. It will take time to do that. And if the weed guy comes and kills the weeds, we'll just have a bunch of brown spots in our yard. I guess the nice man was trying to save us money and dissappointment when killing the weeds didn't give us a beautiful lawn. After 20 years, I'm sure he's dealt with a lot of dissappointed customers who want instant results. He was just trying to paint a realistic picture for me.

Ok...the weed analogy was staring at me right in the face. Aren't we a world of people wanting immediate results? I have a few "weeds" of my own that I'm trying to figure out. One of my weeds is "distraction". These things take time. I can't be "cured" overnight. I can read an inspiring article about being focused and present and think I've learned my lesson when the weed just sprouts up later again. So maybe my focus should instead be on developing a plush, green lawn. Because that is the best way to keep the weeds from coming back. How often have I heard that! To fill ourselves with good stuff so we can produce good stuff. What's good stuff? I guess it's different for everyone. But for me it's quality time with my family, showing and telling them I love them, it's reading inspirational literature, it's chatting with people who keep me on track, it's reading scripture and praying for guidance.

We had to know the name of the weeds in our yard before knowing the correct way to fight that weed. Then, once you get rid of the weed, the open space it came from is just an invitation for it to come back. You have to put the grass seed there so the weed won't return to the same spot. My dad always taught me to pray this way. When asking God to remove the bad things, you first have to name it (fear, anxiety, whatever) then you should immediately ask for the good things to replace it (His love, peace, etc.).

I think I will always be fighting weeds. That is way life is. We are not perfect. I think the only time I will have that perfect, plush, green lawn is when I get to heaven. There are no weeds there. Yahtzee!! In the meantime, I'm going to keep working in my yard.