Note to self: Do not wear a fuzzy sweater when going out to walk around the yard.
Actually, it wasn’t the plush sweater that was the issue; it’s what I did once outside that instigated this note.
I was taking my daily stroll around my garden just to see what’s new, and I came across a couple of hollyhock seedlings in one of my daylily patches. I always have a hard time getting rid of desirable plants, misplaced though they might be, because these volunteers are often sturdier and easier to take care of than the ones I purposely planted. I also figure that anything wanting to live that badly deserves a chance. But hollyhocks in my daylilies? Nope, sorry. Because of their size and the thickness of their stalks, hollyhocks can take over an area, which wouldn’t be so bad, but since they are biennials, living for a year or two and then dying, I would eventually end up with neither hollyhocks nor daylilies.
So, much as it pained me, I dug up those hollyhocks. (I tried to simply pick them as if they were weeds, but the thick roots were already five or six inches deep.) Since I was already calf-deep in that garden plot, I stayed and pulled up a tub’s worth of dead larkspur, creeping Charlie, a couple of leafy spurge plants, and a whole lot of foxtail grasses that had gone to seed. Now those scraggly invaded daylilies have a chance.
I did temporarily leave a couple of other hollyhock babies since I’m not sure if they will be troubling any nearby plants. The New England asters in the area never do well, so perhaps it would be a good time to replant them.
Or not. I’ll have to wait to see how I feel when it comes time to do the larkspur cleanup in that area.
All that was great. No problem. (Surprisingly so since I’d slipped into a pair of sandals to go outside for what was supposed to be a brief gander at the yard — not the best footwear for a sustained bit of work.) I didn’t discover the real issue until I got inside and found my poor sweater covered in long barbed grass seeds that had managed to imbed themselves into the fabric. So, I had to spend as much time cleaning up the garment as I did cleaning up the garden.
Such is the life of a spontaneous gardener!
But still, it would behoove me to pay attention to what I wear outside or else pay attention to what I do outside when I am wearing whatever it is I am wearing.
***
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One
Bertram's Blog 
June 6, 2026 at 10:13 am
Ugh – those foxtails are horrible! Once I got some raw sheep’s wool from the farmer, for free. But was it free? Not at all, for it was so full of foxtails, I spent hours and days trying to wash and clean it, and never did get all the vegetable matter out.
June 6, 2026 at 3:11 pm
Not fun at all! And yes, sometimes free isn’t really free.
June 6, 2026 at 10:25 am
Your post made me smile, not so much because of those pesky foxtails, but that you intended the outing to be a brief wander through the garden, and it turned into a more ambitious tidy-up.
At our previous property on sunny mornings I used to wander through the yard with coffee mug in hand, deadheading the odd spent flower or pulling an errant weed as I went. Now the yard is small enough to observe from the deck, the weeds are mostly suppressed by a thick mulch so I don’t tend to ‘wander’ so much. However I am constantly watching out for lurking Foxgloves (Digitalis). They’re very pretty, and our predecessor here apparently planted/encouraged them. But all parts of the plant — flowers, leaves, roots and seeds — are extremely toxic. Having a dog that likes to wander through the garden beds and occasionally nibble on grass and leaves, we immediately dug out every plant we could find, but new seedlings just keep popping up.
Why is it that the plants we want to encourage often need so much care, while the weeds and undesirable plants flourish? LOL
June 6, 2026 at 3:12 pm
Answer that question at the end, and I think you’d have found the secret of life!
June 6, 2026 at 4:38 pm
I just went to take the dog out and guess what. I made a similar mistake. I wore slippers and a pair of pj bottoms. bad idea. I tried to pu; a couple of weeds and decided it wou;d have to wait or get some cutters. I just could not get them up and finally gave up. sand all over. GROSS!
June 6, 2026 at 6:38 pm
Yeah, gross! What fun we have! Not.
June 6, 2026 at 8:50 pm
I love how your gardening story moves from a simple “quick look outside” into a full cleanup session in both the garden and the sweater. The humor in the ending really ties it together nicely…. definitely something any spontaneous gardener can appreciate.
June 7, 2026 at 6:15 am
Thank you!
June 7, 2026 at 6:41 am
You are welcome Pat. Have a wonderful day.