Beating Around the Bush

Before I get to today's tremendously exciting topic (hedge trimming), I must point out that it is always disturbing to see articles like this in the paper.

Anyway, on to today's topic... It has been a long, long time since I've touched our hedge clippers, but I got brave and attempted to give 'em a whirl last week.

Shortly after we bought the house a dozen years ago, Mrs. Smoot told me to trim the hedges. I wasn't thrilled about doing it, and I wound up doing a remarkably crappy job at it. When I was done our bushes looked like a row of depression-era children who, for economic reasons, had their dads cut their hair. The bushes were all crooked and mangled up, and basically looked horrible.

As "punishment" for doing such a bad job, Mrs. Smoot has always taken the hedge trimming into her own hands so it would be done right. You can imagine how much of a bummer this has been for me.

So anyway, the other day I thought I'd give it another try and surprise Mrs. Smoot when she got home from work. Little Smoot and I toiled for a couple hours, pulling weeds, trimming the hedges and adding new mulch to the scene.

Personally, I think it actually all turned out very nicely. If Mrs. Smoot doesn't like it, perhaps I'll be "punished" again and I'll just have to suffer through another decade or so without messing with the hedge trimmers. Oh, the grief.