Can you pull that?

Yeah, that’s not a flower or a tree. That’s a weed. Please pull it. I walk around the neighborhood and see these huge weeds sticking out of your property and you don’t know how badly I want to pull them.

See how the leaves are all oval with pointy ends and they all evenly spaced like a row of teeth? That means it’s a weed. It’s not some miracle tree growing right up next to your house that will one day be beautiful. It will just become a bigger weed. It’s not a flower that’s waiting for the end of summer to explode in all its glory. It will never flower.

Sometimes people let weeds grow and they become trees, but they are still weeds. I don’t know if I’d advise someone to pull a tree-sized weed, since it may predate the current owners, but ideally, you don’t want it to get to that point. You want to pull the weed when it’s small.

In our neighborhood, there are actual bushes and shrubs with huge weeds growing out of them. These are not like “bonus” bushes or weeds growing out. They are weeds and you should pull them. A lot of the yards have these huge rocks on them and I think they look nice, but then there will be a huge weed-tree next to it and the effect is ruined.

I know how annoying it is to keep up with weeds. For months every year, it’s a struggle at our property. (We get these very invasive weeds that only come up on one side of our garden. They’re not long and spindly but low and almost plant-like. I hate them and don’t know how to eradicate them. They kill all my perennials.) We’re not perfect and I can never keep it clean of weeds at all times. I just try to stay on top of it so we don’t get anything big enough to offer shade.

I really do hate weeding but I hate weeds more and those two things seesaw back and forth. And with that, I’ve just opened an invitation for people to drive by my house and criticize.