The Cleaver-Grass Strikes Back!
I've been stumping again.
My current tally is:
One (1) intact blister on the very tip of my left fore-finger.
One (1) scabbing over blister on the joint between my left fore-finger and my hand.
Various (1 + n) small scrapes and scabs, none currently infected and puffy (the savlon did good).
No (0) headaches. It went away after I had an icecream on the way home.
Numerous (why won't you just die!) seedheads of cleaver-grass stuck to my clothes. And my socks. And...
The cleaver-grass was what I had been exterminating with extreme prejudice two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I didn't get all of it. That means that, when I am stumping (removing the remains of defunct Christmas trees so that they will not trouble lawn-mowers) and sit down to save my knees, guess where it ends up?, says she with a snarl.
I also got to have a go on a ride-on mower. It was interesting. It was more complicated than the push-along version, with chokes, clutches, gears, and levers for engaging the blades. I had a quick but intensive lesson in how the thing worked and headed off merrily, realising later, much to my distress, that I didn't know what it took to tip the thing over. On rough, tilty ground, with rotating blades that I'd been warned about, it occupied my mind very much.
I was back at stumping after that, and had occasion to muse, somewhat pompously, about the nature of survivability: the radiata pine has a survival characteristic of being useful to humans. That means that even though these Christmas trees get chopped down regularly (and their last remains hauled off, ie. the stumps), the species is doing very handily on that patch of ground. It has survivability. The cleaver-grass, meanwhile, has the survival characteristic of very tenacious seed-heads. It's been spreading merrily through the ground. However, its favourite survival characteristic is exceedingly irritating to humans, which means that I was sent to exterminate it with blade and fury. (I can't kill the plants, but I am informed that if I cut the seed-heads before they ripen then the current plants will die without issue (being annuals).) On the other hand, some of the grass is too short to be cut by my mower (which has to be set high because of the hitherto mentioned stumps), so some of it hangs on, leading to my disgust mentioned above.
So go figure: the pine trees are helping out the cleaver-grass. Without them, it would have died out long ago. Wa-hey for interspecies co-operation!
My current tally is:
One (1) intact blister on the very tip of my left fore-finger.
One (1) scabbing over blister on the joint between my left fore-finger and my hand.
Various (1 + n) small scrapes and scabs, none currently infected and puffy (the savlon did good).
No (0) headaches. It went away after I had an icecream on the way home.
Numerous (why won't you just die!) seedheads of cleaver-grass stuck to my clothes. And my socks. And...
The cleaver-grass was what I had been exterminating with extreme prejudice two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I didn't get all of it. That means that, when I am stumping (removing the remains of defunct Christmas trees so that they will not trouble lawn-mowers) and sit down to save my knees, guess where it ends up?, says she with a snarl.
I also got to have a go on a ride-on mower. It was interesting. It was more complicated than the push-along version, with chokes, clutches, gears, and levers for engaging the blades. I had a quick but intensive lesson in how the thing worked and headed off merrily, realising later, much to my distress, that I didn't know what it took to tip the thing over. On rough, tilty ground, with rotating blades that I'd been warned about, it occupied my mind very much.
I was back at stumping after that, and had occasion to muse, somewhat pompously, about the nature of survivability: the radiata pine has a survival characteristic of being useful to humans. That means that even though these Christmas trees get chopped down regularly (and their last remains hauled off, ie. the stumps), the species is doing very handily on that patch of ground. It has survivability. The cleaver-grass, meanwhile, has the survival characteristic of very tenacious seed-heads. It's been spreading merrily through the ground. However, its favourite survival characteristic is exceedingly irritating to humans, which means that I was sent to exterminate it with blade and fury. (I can't kill the plants, but I am informed that if I cut the seed-heads before they ripen then the current plants will die without issue (being annuals).) On the other hand, some of the grass is too short to be cut by my mower (which has to be set high because of the hitherto mentioned stumps), so some of it hangs on, leading to my disgust mentioned above.
So go figure: the pine trees are helping out the cleaver-grass. Without them, it would have died out long ago. Wa-hey for interspecies co-operation!
posted by theamazingcatherine | 7:02 pm
9 Comments:
Cleavers, or goose grass, also has the interesting feature that its stems have downward facing hairs. These hairs manage to attach onto tall plants and therefore get a height advantage without all the overhead of a weedy stem. Very interesting and annoying plant.
Of curiosity - it's called goose grass because geese just love the stuff.
Fortunately there's not much of it left in my garden.
Lucky you. :-?
How've you been, Ned?
And are you showing off your cuts and sores to all and sundry?
(I can still remember John Lowe coming back from SE Asia proudly telling everyone "Look! My leg is rotting!")
I've been telling all and sundry about my blister!
It has now opened up and is a little bit tender but otherwise fine. The puffy infected cuts have settled into scabby healing cuts.
And I hurt in every muscle in my body. Except for my feet. The feet are fine.
So what is cleaver-grass? Google seems to think it is red clover. Goose grass looks to be something completely different.
And *I* remember Stephanie, post-NAAMA, proudly showing off the bruises all over her legs - so you'll have to do better than fingertips if you want to compete.
I am nothing compared to Tanja when it comes to showing off bruises. :-)
I did some more lawn-mowing yesterday. Some of it was as high as my shoulder! It was rather hard to tell from the flax hedge next to it, and I can quite understand why the owners of the property hired someone to do it.
Apart from the ferocious tigers, I now have a bee-eautiful collection of blister-like sores on my shins from the thistly bits grabbing at my legs. I spent a few minutes last night carefully pricking the larger welts with a pin so that they'd drain and not be quite so full and painful.
Does it beat bruising?
Michael,
take a look at this
That ain't what I was dealing with.
I think I've been misinformed. :-(
There was a long stem, with a very sticky oblong seed-head at the top, and two leaves about halfway down the stem.
What's that?
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