My neighbor's 2 minute comment about mulch stopped me cold

Was out pulling weeds yesterday and my neighbor Bob walked over. He said "you're fighting the wrong stuff, those little seedlings are from the tree above." Just a 70 year old guy with a coffee mug. I had spent 5 hours that week pulling sprouts I thought were random weeds. But he was right, they all came from the same maple dropping seeds. Never even looked up. Made me wonder what else I'm treating symptoms instead of the cause. Anyone else have a small comment that flipped your whole approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

linda_dixon491mo agoOG Member

I get what Laura is saying, but I actually side with the original poster on this one. The neighbor's comment was about looking up to find the real source, not blaming everything on a single cause. Sometimes you do need to step back and check if you're just putting out fires instead of fixing the pipe.

laura_schmidt821mo ago

Oh man, I spent a whole summer once blaming squirrels for stealing my tomatoes when it was actually me forgetting to water them.

diana5121mo ago

Honestly, I gotta say, that's not quite how plant neglect works. Tomatoes actually need more water when they're fruiting, so if you were blaming squirrels, you were probably also not checking the soil. But tbh, the real lesson here is that sometimes we just look for the easiest excuse instead of the real problem.