Sprouts Begone!

Today the temperatures made it into the low 50s Fahrenheit (way above the 40° average). By the time I left the house at 9:30 to run errands it was already warm enough to put on my lighter weight winter coat, although I still wrapped a scarf around my neck. Thirty minutes later the scarf came off, and an hour after that I didn't need the coat zipped.

When I went outside to get the mail in the afternoon the temperature was even balmier. Tomorrow is forecast to be twenty degrees colder, so I knew that I needed to make the most of the warmth. I walked down to the end of my street, then turned around and came back up.

Across the street from our condo there's a retaining wall. When we moved in last winter the area at the top of the wall was a jumble of bush honeysuckle and creeping euonymus, both weedy and invasive plants. Once the weather warmed up the jumble was taken out and replaced with a row of evergreens, which will eventually grow together to make a hedge. 

However, the old plants did not go quietly. Wherever the landscapers forgot to pull up all the roots sprouts appeared. During the nice weather an employee of the condo management company would occasionally come and maintain the area, but now that it's cold I haven't seen him.

I'm thoroughly enjoying condo living, but every once in a while I still like to get my hands dirty, and decided to take advantage of being outside to pull up some of the sprouts. I walked along the wall yanking on the ones I came upon. The soil was moist from some rain earlier in the week, so many of them came out easily, spewing out pieces of dirt along with their root systems. I ripped the leaves off the stubborn sprouts, figuring that would temporarily deprive them of nutrients so they wouldn't thrive.

I've never heard that residents couldn't play at gardening, but I've never seen anyone do it. I kept looking around to make sure no one was taking offense at my efforts, but the street was quiet.

Five years ago today: Let's Call It Soup