Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Riddle Me This!

Many years ago, during a marketing class I was taking at the time, a professor asked us this question:

What product:
Has been around for centuries
Needs no advertising
Has had no noticeable improvement for decades
Yet everyone needs this product
And the average household has seven!

We could not think of the answer.  Can you?  It's scissors!

How valuable scissors are in the garden!  Pruners, loppers, shears and even just lowly, plain scissors are very much needed and appreciated by the gardener.  I remember reading that HRH The Prince of Wales' gardeners (not being English, I hope I titled that correctly!) go around cutting grass edges with scissors.  Not grass shears.  Regular scissors.

Working each area around my garden, plants are not safe from my cutting tools.  I trim the dwarf indian hawthornes that encroach onto the path.  Ivy is cut back.  So, too is the asian jasmine.  Hedges are given a good trimming.  Roses are pruned.  Even trees are not safe!

In this picture of a relaxing area in my garden, there are holly hedges, boxwood hedges, roses and trees that have all been subjected to one type of scissor or another.  Like a good haircut that enhances the face, this garden would be completely different if not for the annual trimming it receives.


This week I am busy in the garden using all the different types of gardening scissors.  I enjoy this chore.  I know when I start giving the garden its haircut, summer's beauty is not far away.

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet."                            - James Openheim



13 comments:

  1. Your sitting area is lovely. I too love wielding the scissors. I'm sure neighbors think I'm nuts when I attack the viburnums with my kitchen shears.

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  2. Your garden is lovely in the picture. While I have a favorite pair of scissors, I must confess that I tend to prefers a small set of pruners in the garden over scissors.

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  3. Your garden shot is lovely and I did not know the answer to your riddle until I read it. But I too have tiny pruners a client bought for me that I use in place of the scissors. And I like riddles too.

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  4. Great looking gardens cant be without that important tool..scissors! Also in the kitchen, I trim off my fish fins with a scissor before the big cut, its much easier and faster.

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  5. Oh you are speaking my language. I love snipping and shaping away. The relaxing area of your garden is lovely. Do you do hair?

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  6. Floridagirl - thank you. haha - I can imagine your neighbors wondering about you!

    threedogsinagarden - thank you. Pruners are invaluable! I love all those cutting tools.

    gardenwalkgardentalk- Tiny pruners! How sophistocated! I'll have to look for a pair.

    p3chandan - I hadn't thought about using scissors on fish. Of course, I usually filet my fish with an electric knife. Quicker and less painful on my part.

    lifeshighway - I think it's a throwback to cutting and pasting as a kid. Hair is not exempt from my scissors - it grows back. I only refuse to cut on things that would be permanently disfigured.

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  7. Hi Holley, I'm a big fan of scissors too and carry them around the garden in my little bucket of tools. I posted my topiary holly today, inspired by your 'try this at home post'. All the best, Kelli.

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  8. I use kitchen scissors to edge the lawn. Weed whackers tend to leave a choppy edge and damage the tree trunks. for everything else, I use a good pair of bypass pruners. Which are pretty much just curved scissors!

    I would never have guessed the answer to that riddle, either. Now I'm wondering how many pairs of scissors I have.....

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  9. Kelli - I saw your topiary holly and it is beautiful! I would love to do that, but mine would not turn out very pretty, I'm afraid.

    Shannon - yes, weed whackers are terrible for the trees. When we first moved here, we had no trees, so we baby them a bit. And I don't have enough scissors. I know because I can never find a pair! I really do think they grow legs at night.

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  10. Oh my, your garden is gorgeous. And I am drooling over your sidebar rose photos! :) I haven't used my scissors much in the garden, except for cutting flowers.

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  11. Hanni - Thanks for the compliments. Cutting flowers is a good thing, but sometimes I'd rather have them in the garden than inside!

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  12. I am a hack with scissors so my garden stays a bit more on the cottage garden side of things...I wish i could trim but alas it is not in my genes...lovely how you have things shaped

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  13. Donna - Cottage gardens are beautiful, but I'm a sucker for a sheared hedge. Thanks for coming by.

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