You can bet your boots that somewhere in the world, everyday, a landscape maintenance worker is getting hit in the head or face by a tree branch. I bring up this totally plausible, though not extensively-researched assertion because, today, I was that landscape maintenance worker. I have been working for Blooming Flowers and Grass for the past 4 summers, so you could pretty much say I'm a pro. But, despite my experience and walking-backward skills, I will get hit in the head or face with a tree branch at least once per day. OR get hit in the head or face enough in one day to fill up two weeks worth of daily tree-bashings (that also includes bashings from large shrubs...like dogwoods).
Although grass doesn't particularly enjoy growing underneath trees (especially pine for some reason), it grows just enough to be really long, patchy, and scraggly. This wimpy patch of lawn is usually found beneath trees and shrubs that have low branches and cannot be reached by a lawn mower (Walkers for life!). Therefore, it must be cleaned up with a string trimmer. It is necessary to push your way through the branches to reach the highly-visible, scraggly grass near the base of the tree.
The trouble with trees is that they are pokey, covered with sap, unyielding and did I mention pokey? The most prickley of trees that I have encountered (besides Russian olive, but more on those later) is the blue spruce. It is a lovely tree that is very Christmassy, nice smelling and is a neat color to boot. The needles however, are short, stiff and very, very sharp! Blue spruce are apparently very popular on the properties we tend... Needless to say, I've had some unpleasant, pokey-branch-to-the-face encounters in my day.
If you were to take any practical knowledge from a seasoned landscape maintenance worker it would be this:
Don't plant blue spruce in such a location that you will have grass underneath it!
This has been... "The 'Mower' You Know"
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