Just A Little Off The Top, Please

Because I forgot to take the "before" shot, I just picked this one up off the Internet. I believe this is called Pampas Grass, although we refer to it as "troll head". Ours was every bit this large, before my husband went after it with the chain saw. Yes, that's right, a chain saw. That's the only piece of lawn equipment able to handle such a job.

This is where our troll head is planted, lives and grows. The phone man is exceptionally happy whenever he has to come service our phone lines...(note the size of the plant in it's "full state" of happiness/growth above). Every year at about this time this guy gets a standard, military-issued buzz cut. The first time we did this, my heart skipped a beat. I thought, oh my goodness what have we done. But I literally watched it come back to life right before my eyes. As a matter of fact, I'm sure as I'm typing this it's grown 3 inches already! Last year I planted a few impatients around the base of this monstrosity. They were beautiful - for while. And then the "hair" grew back and, well, so much for my pretty impatients. I'm a smarter gardener today, however!

And along with the troll head scalping, our yard got its first cut of the season. Yeah...she says with a sense of dread. For this means almost EVERY weekend - almost - one of the two days will be spent on the tractor.


But it sure is pretty when it's done. And I love the smell of a freshly mowed lawn.

And I can't help but giggle at the grass-stained feet of my barn cats. What can I say, it takes very little to entertain me.