9/9 I cut the hedge over the weekend. There are all sorts of weeds in it. Some of them seem to grow by inches in even a single night. Something in it might be toxic, and J is highly sensitive to it – she gets a rash if she so much as walks too close to it. I’m cutting away the worst parts of it, basically just hedging the hedge in a little.

Our neighbor cannot find the time, and I get it: she’s got it tough with her son who has severe autism. Her hedge has lost all shape, and weeds grow out of it in branches several feet long, like tendrils of infection. Earlier this year she had her front yard redone, getting it covered with wood chips, with a kind of square patio in the middle and a table and two red metal chairs on it. Nobody ever sat on those chairs. In fact, they still have their price tags attached. And the yard around it is in a state of disarray, with grotesque weeds sprouting up all over it.

I feel sorry for her and hope life loosens its grip a little, enough for her to spend even a small amount of time on her garden.