She Who Must Be Obeyed holds a Certificate 4 in Horticulture. With that qualification one would be entitled to think that Cassa Creaking Bones would have the smartest, most attractive and weed free gardens with manicured lawns in our little enclave on the outskirts of town.

That is definitely not the case.  Fortunately for me, as a bloke totally devoid of green thumbs, She Who Must Be Obeyed is of the opinion that certain weeds have more to offer visually than many of the flowering specialty plants available in nurseries.

Of course, these specialty plants are in prolific quantities and displayed beautifully in the gardens of our neighbours.

I don’t envy the neighbours’ enthusiasm for digging garden beds and edging them with misshaped rocks. I’d rather be out and about with the camera or on the bike actually going somewhere.

Now over the past few months, our region in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, has, like many other parts of Australia,  experienced heavy rain and with the arrival of Spring and warmer days, our native trees and our grassed areas have taken on a new lease of life.

This has been accompanied by many, many broad leafed weeds popping up everywhere.

No sooner do they appear in the gardens and lawns of our neighbours than they disappear, often overnight. Is it a mystery? Not at all.

The answer lies in the liberal use of weed poison.

Do we possess weed poison? Of course we do. She Who Must be Obeyed is qualified to buy Roundup in 20 litre drums. We have one in the shed, been there for 1o years or so, never been opened.  Purchased as part of the Horticulture course. It even has a back pack hand pump delivery system. Its use is totally prohibited at Casa Creaking Bones.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve no objection to weeds, they have their place in the natural scheme of things. However, there comes a point when stern action could be taken.

After all, I am an Aussie bloke living outside the big cities and when it suits me, I follow the country blokes mantra, ‘If it’s growing chop it down, if it’s moving, shoot it!’

Now that Aussie mantra is a bit difficult to apply to weeds and just hopping on the ride on mower and chopping away achieves nothing as the weeds just ‘keep on keeping on’.

Accordingly I surreptitiously slipped into the local hardware store yesterday and purchased some Weed and Feed which you just attach to the hose and spray around the place and a small quantity of Zero that you dab onto the offending weed and as the name implies, that’s it. Bye bye broad leafed weed.

Last night, after a delicious roast leg of lamb, mint sauce, roast potatoes and the relevant veggies accompanied by some pleasing to the palate cab sav, I gentry broached the weeding subject with my horticulturist.

As you are no doubt aware, some family discussions can continue for quite some time where there are widely differing views held by the protagonists.

Not so in this instance. A firm, ‘No way’ closed down the discussion before it really began.

Ever the diplomat, I proclaimed that was fine by me as I found the yellow flowers quite colourful and attractive against their green background. For good measure I added that the flowers did attract the native bees.

There are benefits of course. I don’t have to get on the mower until the weeds die of old age and the whipper snipper/brush cuter can stay in the shed with the mowers.

The Weed and Feed and Zero don’t take up much space in the shed and with summer approaching, our searing summer heat will replace the little yellow flowers with prickly bindy eye. Then I’ll be welcome to dab a little zero here and there.

Here is part of the back yard with its glorious carpet of yellow. How pleasing to the eye.

Here are two versions of the proposed cure.

I have to admit though, the weeds do look pretty, the native birds like digging into them and they are certainly a time saver.

Hoo roo for now