Susan with Tulips at Pella, Iowa

By Susan Shanklin

Today, the 27th day of April, we woke up to snow on the ground. Mind you it wasn’t much, but my apple and lilac blossoms were covered and day lily leaves were bent and white. I restarted a fire in the wood stove a few days ago after shutting it down, polishing it, and cleaning the window. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Me not happy about that!

Thinking it was Spring … I ordered a NEW garden tool for myself. Yes Tom, I ordered a garden tool. This is Tom’s first news of it. Ha.

My flower garden is full of grass, Bishop’s weed runners, dandelions and other unwanted green stuff. The asparagus bed has quack grass and an occasional little tree.

Pull as I would, I wasn’t getting the whole root out, and my hands were saying, “Isn’t there something better?”

I go online and search for garden forks, thinking maybe that’s what I need. Just a small one maybe. I have a garden fork, but it’s too big to get in between the plants and I would lift up more dirt than I wanted. Good to get the weeds out without destroying things that were perfectly healthy around them.

Weeds can be tricky. Sometimes they are rather attractive like Creeping Charlie.

Creeping Charlie is a ground cover with round little leaves and then bright purple blue flowers. Bees love it and it creeps and creeps and creeps. Creeps and heaps over your plants until it plants a flag and screams, “This is my garden and I’m here to stay!”

Why, it’s so pretty you want it to stay, but look out, it will choke your little pretties.

Then there’s the variegated Bishop’s weed with a white and green and a pretty dill-style flower head. That too creeps and creeps. It’s wicked! It creeps underground and pops up like a submarine periscope.

I already had to dig up one bed with yellow irises, which came from my grandmother, and replant it to rid it of Bishop’s weed.

Time is running out and I needed help. I can’t do this alone. Pleeeeeeease, isn’t there something out there to go to the roots, grab, and yank out the wretched scum bag malignant pestilence?

The Cobrahead Weeder and Cultivator.

Look no further! CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just the name of it has the weeds bowing down for mercy. A piece of metal shaped in a form of a snake will be lifted up over your weeds.

The product description reads like this, “Its blade is a “steel fingernail” that makes the tool an efficient weeding, cultivating, digging and planting device. It weeds, cultivates, scalps, edges, digs, furrows, plants, transplants, de-thatches, and harvests with ease. The time proven blade design breaks up and plows almost any soil. The comfortable and efficient handle allows easy left-hand or right-hand action.”

HA! Weeds, you have no chance now! With a mighty swift strike of the hands I shall remove you and throw you in the burn heap!!!!!!

Sounds good anyway. But I’m thinking as it is traveling in the mail, “Susan, you will have to put some time and muscles into that CobraHead Weeder. It’s not going to hop out of the box and trot out there and work on it’s own. I will have to be faithful to get out the weeds and not let any weed stay.”

Having a pretty garden takes elbow grease and maybe a little travail, but you can reclaim your garden if you want to.