This afternoon when I returned home from doing a few errands I spent some time pulling weeds from the ivy on the small slope in front of my house that runs down to the sidewalk. I don’t know what kind of plants the weeds are. All I know is that they have been growing, well, like weeds for the last couple of weeks, rapidly on their way to overtaking the slower-growing ivy.
I had asked a couple of teen-aged boys in the neighborhood if they would be interested in weeding the front slope, but they were having trouble finding the time, what with sports and travel and other summer activities keeping them busy. I was hoping that they would help because
1) I was feeling lazy, and
2) even if I were motivated, I thought the work might be overly challenging.
The front slope is not big but it is steep. It’s not easy to stand on it. The ivy and weeds are also viny. It’s easy to become entangled in them and trip.
But when I got home this afternoon, I just thought, What the heck? I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
The sky was finally clearing after several days of damp, overcast weather. The day was settling into a cool, breezy evening.
Birds were chirping. Some squirrels were pawing here and there in some mulch by the front gate. Others were quaaing and chasing each other around, racing up and down trees. They would freeze, facing each other, and then tear off again. Quaa! Quaa!
Hearing and seeing all this activity, I decided that it would be nice to stay outside. I didn’t need to go back inside to watch the news or read the paper. I could get back to my book later. None of that was going anywhere.
I settled myself onto the slope near the top, and then I just sort of scooched along and down, teasing out the weedy tendrils from the woody ivy and yanking them from their roots as much as possible. I worked for about an hour. It was not so hard.
I also realized when I came back inside that I liked having my hands in some dirt. They smelled green, if that’s possible—like water, and soil, and maybe even worms or other small, squishy, soft things that live in the dirt. It had been a long time since I had enjoyed this smell.
I remembered an article I read a few weeks ago called Get Dirty. It’s Surprisingly Good for Your Health. It discussed how being outside and getting mucky can benefit a person’s immune system and microbiome, the collection of microbes that live on and in us.
The article offered a few suggestions for doing some dirty work—hiking, camping, mountain bike riding, and, of course, gardening. It also mentioned the psychological benefits of planting and picking things, such as reduced anxiety and depression.
It’s unlikely that an hour’s worth of weeding radically altered my microbiome or mental health. But it’s also fair to say that I felt refreshed after my time out on the front slope, even if I were a little dirty — or, I guess, maybe especially because I was a little dirty. I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.
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It was tough. Calamine lotion didn't make a dent in my rash. I had to get a prescription cream. And even that took two days to start working!
I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, those weeds turned out to be poison ivy. Got a bad rash that covered about 60 percent of my body and lasted for two weeks. But, on the upside, I got two more essays out of it. Stay tuned!