I've been in the garden a lot this weekend, as I
had promised both myself and a neighbour that I
would move a pampus grass that has significantly outgrown its current location.
Initially I was taken aback by its beauty, feeling slightly sad as I chopped down its feathery fronds. The awe soon mellowed as I started to hack further into it, and it started to fight back. The grass blades on a pampus grass cut flesh very easily, and despite trying to take care my hands are now covered with little cuts and gashs. Some cuts just happen, but pampus cuts seem to have an added sting of pain. I should have used gloves, but I had already decided that it would be better mental training to attempt to use care and caution instead of suitable protective equipment.
After battling the Pampus and reducing it down to a shodow of its former self, I thought that the main fight was over. This was not to be, as Wasps then took interest. I'm not too sure if they lived in or around the pampus, and whilst there were only a couple of them, they did their best to ensure that further attacks on the grass were complicated further.
I managed to carry on hacking until the wasps lost interest, but the Pampus was not yet beaten. despite being reduced to a short stump, its breadth still ensured that extracting the rootball would take more strength than I could muster. Fortunately at this point my neighbour came to my rescue, and arrived with a garden fork. Between us we removed it from the ground.
At this point I was sure that the Pampus was dead. All that was left was the task of chopping the rootball into managable pieces. However, my satisfaction was short lived, as much like the source of evil in a horror movie, it was not yet defeated. It sent forth a swarm of midges to irritate in a last ditch attempt to save its self. It was insufficient, however, and I managed to hack it down into more managable pieces, which my housemate has promised to dispose of.
The menace of the pampus vanquished, I have chalked up another victory in my ongoing mission to reclaim the garden from the evil clutches of the weeds. I am not sure at which point my aim switched from moving to destroying the aforementioned plant, but I do know that it will be a long time before I would consider getting another.
