The grass will be greener

You know what shocked me the most when I moved to this country? The dandelions. Here I was living in a place reknowned for neatness and orderliness and doing things The Right Way - and everyone had dandelions in their lawn. Along with a heap of other weeds. Laziness and unkemptness everywhere.

I tried to get over my Australian aversion to weeds. I did. I really really tried to like dandelions. And actually, the flower is quite pretty. Plus kids love the puff.

I thought I'd done it (although I still baulked at liking dandelion salad) ... and then I got my own garden. My own, dandelion weed filled garden.

I've spent a lot of time weeding lately.

The dandelions were dealt with pretty quickly... but as I inspected the lawn, words came back to me from my father. Grass names. Couch, kikuyu, paspalum.

Hmm, paspalum. We seem to have a lot of it. I'm pretty sure dad said it wasn't a good grass to have. And it sure is ugly.

So, in the afternoons after work with the kids helping, and late into the summer nights with the swallows calling out above, and for entire weekend days as the village passed by and teased me about wanting an English garden*, I've been pulling out paspalum.

Bucket-load after bucket-load after bucket-load. (Along with bucket-loads of stones) (And with some interference)

The photo above with me in it shows the extent of my paspalum-pulling obsession - I'm not on our side of the garden. The thought of weed-free lawn on our side and paspalum-infested lawn on the other was too much to bear.

Which added urgency to the weeding, because people were starting to visit the other half of the barn, with an eye for buying. And while C's godfather seemed to be OK with me ripping up the grass, I couldn't be sure the new neighbours would appreciate it.

My obsessive side was pretty sure my shy side would win if I didn't finish before someone moved in. So I stepped up my efforts, even weeding by feel in the fading evening light.

And I did it. I pulled up the last clump of paspalum just before my family arrived for 4.5 weeks.

Our new neighbours move in 2 weeks after my family leaves. Which just might be enough time to fill in all the holes I've made in their lawn...

* Just to have in writing for C's family, who continue to tease me: I'm not aiming for a perfectly manicured English garden, just one with pretty grass and no weeds.