The Return of the Bunnies

The bunnies never really left. I just wanted to really see my silly Star Wars reference all the way through to the end. I’m a big believer in committing yourself to the bit, even if it doesn’t work. So it goes.

Late last summer, my oldest looked at me and said “Dad, you really should go back to planting the tomatoes in the ground next year”. Mind you, he doesn’t like tomatoes nor does he really like gardening. The kid had a point, though. My tomatoes did grow really well in the ground for at least a decade. I love trying new things and experimenting in the garden, but sometimes you have to “play the hits”.

Ah, but what to do with my shoddily constructed planter boxes? Even though they didn’t work as well as I wanted them to, I did spend money on the construction materials and a bit of time making them. I needed to do something with them and torpedo grass inspired my decision. You might be asking why an obnoxious weed inspired my decision to make my poorly constructed useful again and it would be a good question to ask. I might even answer it.

I’ve planted stuff in the area behind my shed for years. The problem is that it gets infested with torpedo grass. If you look closely on the left side of the picture, you can see that nasty stuff in all it’s glory. I’ve tried everything to keep it at bay. Weed fabric. Thick layer of mulch. Pulling it. The only thing that really seems to kill it is Round Up. Of course, I’m not a huge fan of spraying herbicides around things that I might eat so by the end of summer, this area is usually overgrown with grass. It creates a giant mess and it’s a huge pain in the neck to get rid of.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to move my planter boxes behind the shed. All things considered, it was a no-brainer. If I need to spray the torpedo grass with herbicides, I can do it without worrying about it getting into something we’re going to eat. I can also use the weed whacker to keep it at bay if I decide to not spray. It just gives me many more options to deal with the grass in the long run. I was able to move two of the six boxes this fall and planned to have them all moved and that junkyard looking area behind my shed all cleaned up.

Let’s take a little trip back in time to May 2022. Specifically the end of the little season. For the last practice of the season, the coaches decided to do a kids vs. parents scrimmage game. My brain thought that I was still 17. My body decided to remind that I’m actually in my mid-40s. I injured my knee. Initially the doctor told me that I probably had a strain and not to worry about it much. Fast forward to October and it still hurt like hell. Saw the doctor again (a different one) and he immediately said “Yep, something’s not right” and referred me to an orthopedist. Did the MRI, yadda yadda, and learned that I had a subchondral fracture in my knee. So much for that sprain. No more weight bearing activities on that knee for me. Pretty much everything yard and garden wise has been on hold since early December. He gave me the “ok” to start gradually ramping up the weight on that knee today, but I still can’t do much.

The end of the bunny inspired planter box saga is in my sights. My hope is that by the next time I post about those wretched planter boxes, I will have a wonderful looking area behind my shed that has been cleaned up with all the planters relocated.