Sunday, May 24, 2009

A virtual weed remover would be cool

As I write this, the sun is still shining in the back yard, highlighting all the holes in the lawn where weeds used to be.

I’ve spent the better part of the past two days cleaning up the lawn in our new house. We’ve been enjoying seeing what comes up in the spring, since we bought our home in the middle of the winter, with little idea what the landscaping would look like.

We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the variety. While things haven’t been tended for awhile, a lot of thought has gone into what went where and it looks like we’ll have plenty of variety and colour during the growing season.

However, our lawn is another story. I have mixed feelings about lawns. In other cities, we’ve had both grass and grass-free yards. But no matter what, you still have to pull weeds regularly.

We are able to do so much with our computers, wouldn’t it be nice if we could find a way to use them to keep our gardens looking good? I wonder what Google says...

I did find a program that lets you plant a virtual garden and watch it grow every month. You can see what the flowers and shrubs look like at different stage of the year. But you can’t take your laptop outside and put it to work. Too bad. You can see the program yourself here.

So I’m left with pulling the weeds myself.

But maybe a more philosophical approach towards the weeds could make a difference. Instead of thinking of dandelions as weeds, I should marvel at their resilient nature and their near-perfect blooms.

And if you have trouble getting your head around that, check out this YouTube video to see what I mean. (Click on the HQ button to see it in high-quality mode.)



Here’s to good times in your garden, real or virtual.

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