My Power Wagon

Dear Mom,

I finally got out in the yard to take care of the weeds before they invaded the house. There’s this wild, native, invasive—but pretty looking—plant. See the plant with the rounded leaves? That's the culprit, trying to take over the phlox.

I decided it looked cool and let it grow. It took off like the moles around here and the next thing I know it’s choking the life out of all my plants. I’m in the third year of trying to keep it out of the garden area and under control. It really is pretty in the spring—tiny purple flowers bloom—especially when it’s covering the ground like a blanket.

While fighting that, I came across another plant that is acting the same way. This water plant has variegated leaves of pink, green and white with scraggly edges. It made its way out of the water and on to ground—also choking out my other plants. It’s more invasive than the other. You know the ole saying, if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em—and I decided to create an area of its own. Maybe it will be happy in its own little section. I gave it lots of love.

The path that I had created was now gone—covered by mulch, weeds, dirt, etc. Again being creative, I decided to line the path with more rocks.

Here's what it looked like before. Do you see a path? It's supposed to be in between the boxwoods (left) and the hosta (right).

My husband had bought me a power wagon several years ago. I gasped at what he paid for it and wondered whether he had any sense. Who would pay that kind of money for a motorized wheelbarrow? The first time my little sister and I used it to create a dry (rock) creek bed, we used the DR Power Wagon. Just once it paid for itself—saving wear and tear on our backs, the ease in which we gathered and hauled rocks. We loved the DRPW.

When creating my path, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to get the DRPW since it meant hauling it out of the barn, driving it through the woods, down the hill and into the back (the only way to get back there with a powered machine) and so I carried one big rock. Was I crazy? I went and got the DRPW. And filled that puppy up with rocks (that came from our woods).

Isn’t she a beaut? Oh, and my husband—he has LOTS of sense.

Oh and did I tell you that the DRPW also has a button you can push and it dumps your load for you?