For you folks in the south: In the north, April is the time of year where we clean up the jungle-mess that was left behind by late fall and winter. Gutters need to be cleared if you desire to *not* have water leaking in your house above your ceiling (among other problems). Kind of essential, eh? Gardens and grasses need to be unburied from dead leaves and branches and clumps of nature. Shit is rotted and nasty and smelly. Get it all done, otherwise you’ll have rats by May.

Since you can’t get your garden or landscaping ready to grow anything or plant anything because garden supplies have been deemed “non-essential,” you can at least use all of your unemployed time to clean up that mess winter left behind, right? Nope. Now, picking up yard waste is deemed non-essential. Ya can’t have your lawn cut if you can’t do it yourself (and a lot of people can’t), and ya can’t clean up your property because no one will take the waste.

The fear is this: well, in order to take your waste we’d have to “touch” it. We have become a nation of brainless pansies afraid to “touch” anything or anyone. So now, in the city and suburbs, grasses will grow, yard waste will accumulate, critters will abound — and how does that contribute to the public health question?

Not to mention that rats are entirely destructive to property. I once had them come from a neighboring yard and eat through my garage door and chew up nearly every dang thing in my garage before I could get it under control.

The result: people will be taking their bags of waste and dumping them in parks, woods, rivers and creeks, and other ‘hidden’ spots. So nature will suffer.

The Best of Karen De Coster