We have two big pampas grass plants (tufts? fronds?) that grow at the back of our yard. And every spring (yeah, it’s already spring here — sorry!) I go out and cut them down to little stumps/mounds. It’s what you’re supposed to do with pampas grass. It’s healthy for them and helps get sun to the roots and lets them grow better. You let them stay long all winter, though, so they can keep getting sun until we cut them down before the new growth starts coming in.
And I’m not sure how I manage to do it, but it seems like every single year I forget these two very basic things about this task:
- Pampas grass is sharp
- I’m really allergic to grass
So every single year, I walk away with big scratches up and down my arms, because heaven forbid I actually remember to do it wearing long sleeves. And then those scratches swell up and itch and burn like . . . well like everything else that I get into that I’m allergic to. I’m pretty sure you’ve all seen what happens. I was going to take a picture but (1) I’m lazy and (2) it’s an arm with a bunch of big pink scratches on it. It’s not an interesting photo.
This year, I think I got the added bonus of upsetting a big pile of ants and getting those biting up my legs. I’m not sure yet if the burning and itching on my shins is because of the grass (because of course I wore capri-length pants) or ant bites. By the time I saw the ant pile, it was too dark to see if there were ants coming out of it.
Anyway, I ran out of light to really finish the project well, but I’m really late this year at getting those trimmed back. And I’ve probably written about this before, but the website is having troubles with me actually opening pages for previous posts so I can’t go back and check. But I finished chopping them down and raked up as much as I could in the light that I had left and then ran inside to shower and slather aloe vera on my arms. So now I’m itchy, burny, clean, and sticky. And smelling of mentholyptus because that’s the kind of aloe we got for putting on sunburns. Great for sunburns! Kind of stings on scratches.
And I’m sniffling a bunch because hey! Allergic to grass. And trees. And flowers. All of which are having a hey-day lately.
Oh! And I have an ear infection.
It’s nothing but fun times in this house today! 🙂