Weeding Day

Weeding Day is one of the most frustrating events in New Leaf.  It occurs on different days in different lands but, in North America, it is the first Friday in April.   On that day, Leif will shut his little stall or shop, depending on how many upgrades your village has had in that department, and will stand in the middle of your square below the Tree.  When you speak to him, he will tell you to pull weeds and will give you, when asked, the total number of Weeds in your village.  When all the Weeds have been pulled, he will give you a special prize in the form of one item from his furniture series.

Here is the difficulty, however:  In New Leaf, you can enact a Town Ordinance to make your village 'beautiful'.  A Beautiful Village is one where few weeds grow, no flowers wither and no cockroaches invade your homes, however many days or weeks or even months you have been absent from said home.  It is my favourite ordinance and most players probably agree.

Even with the Beautiful Ordinance, a few weeds will sprout.  From experience in other Animal Crossing games, I instinctively would pull a weed whenever i encountered one.  Only for the sake of having weeds on the ground for Weeding Day did I desist... but lo and behold, after counting at least a dozen weeds the night before Weeding Day, when the day actually dawned, not a single Weed could be found!

If there are NO Weeds, Leif will unlock three new topiaries for your list of Projects.  This is nice, but not as valuable as his furniture.

Enormously frustated by the fact that, after saving my Weeds, they had disappeared, I was thrilled to discover that, even if your primary Character as Mayor is told that the topiaries have been unlocked instead of receiving a furniture gift, ALL OTHER CHARACTERS WILL BE GIVEN FURNITURE!!!

I did not realise this in my first village, alas, so lost the opportunity to gain three pieces of furniture.

In my first town, unfortunately, I went the traditional route initially, cancelling the beautiful Ordinance and thereby allowing weeds to proliferate while all my hybrid flowers withered or vanished and ultimately, cockroaches appeared in every home.  Not worth the effort!!!

Now I simply will count on the three subsidiary characters to obtain furniture from the series.
There is another problem, however, and this one has to do with AC Luck.  As with Saharah, the Golden Furniture, Redd's Gallery and every other situation where you can obtain items that cannot be bought in any shop, there are certain items that are 'common' and others that are 'rare'. 

In Leif's series, the common items include: Cosmos Fan, Violet Screen, Rose Sofa and Lily Record Player.  No matter how many times I reloaded, I kept receiving the same items.  If you have Katrina ensconced in her own place on Main Street, you can improve your luck somewhat but I keep missing her and she therefore only comes to the Square on occasion still.  Meanwhile, I have more than one of each of the 'common' items and do not have the others.