Having spent the summer battling the weeds on my two-and-a-half acres of land, I must admit that I can hardly wait for fall. Yanking out weeds as tall as I am by the roots is a task that gets old quick. To make matters worse, our lawn tractor seemed to be on the fritz more often than it was operational.

Maybe because I grew up in Phoenix, or maybe because much of Chino Valley seems to be various shades of brown, I do have a small lawn that I try to cultivate. In my on-going efforts to get the grass green and the weeds gone, I purchased something that I thought would feed the grass and kill the weeds. Apparently,  I bought the stuff that kills the lawn and feeds the weeds. You’ve never seen a healthier crop of dandelions in your life than I have growing happily in my lawn. My lawn, in spite of all my efforts, has some patches of green in among the brown and bare spots.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say. With that in mind, I’ve decided to look upon the dandelion as a beautiful flower and just let nature have its way with my lawn for what little remains of the summer.

Here is a poem that expresses my newfound feelings.

                                        THE KING OF THE WEEDS

                                                             by Rosemary Heddens

                    The other weeds hide deep in the lawn,

                    Bending and twisting, too fearful to be seen.

                    But the king of the weeds stands straight and tall,

                    Bearing his golden crown high above the blades of grass.

                    “You are just a weed,” he is told.                       

                    To this he shakes his head,

                    Spreading his seeds across the earth,

                    Knowing that he is more than just a weed,

                    He is a dandy lion!