Abundance in the garden (mostly weeds)

You know that feeling you have when you look in the mirror and think, “I have to get a hair cut. Today. Right now. I can’t stand it any longer.” That’s the same feeling I got this morning looking at my garden. I have to do something about this. Today. Right now.

I have had the same list of excuses everyone else does to avoid weeding the garden. It’s too hot. There are too many bugs. It’s too hard. Nobody will notice anyway. I don’t have my shoes on.

But finally, I just couldn’t stand it any longer so, donning long sleeves and a hat, I whistled for my faithful dog, Sadie, and headed to the back, bushwhacking my way through the weeds.

I weeded for a while, and got into the rhythm of the “grab, pull, toss.” And, once into it, with plenty of time to think, I realized that there was a parallel list of good reasons to weed.

1. No one bothers you. Not my husband or a grandchild or a grown child. They all realize if they stick their head out the door to ask me something, there is a very real threat they will get roped into weeding. So, I repeat, no one bothers me.

2. With so many weeds to choose from, I don’t have to move around a lot. I can stand or squat in one place for a long time with plenty of weeds to keep me busy.

3. There is a satisfyingly large pile of weeds to look at, providing evidence of how hard I am working. (It also provides evidence of how long I’ve neglected the garden but we won’t talk about that.)

4. Then, there are the obvious reasons. Removing all those weeds actually gives the garden plants room to grow and breathe and even spread. AND, an added benefit, I always uncover things I forgot I planted, such as the azalea shrub I put in last spring. I knew it was there someplace!

Different people have different methods of weeding based on personality type. My sister, Sharon, I’m sure is a slow and meticulous weeder because that’s how she does everything. Other people are slap happy, let’s get this over with, grab as many as you can in the shortest time possible kind of weeders. Guess which I am?

Being a fast weeder has a lot of advantages (as in you finish sooner!) but you will also inevitably have an “oops” moment when you look at a fistful of weeds only to discover that you’ve pulled up your prized…..something!”

My Dad used to have a T-shirt that said “Weed them and reap,” clearly a play on the poker saying, “Read them and weep.” But when I inadvertently pulled up the small dahlia that I’d been nurturing since last spring, I thought it should probably read, “Weed them and weep.”

I try to plant the garden so that there’s not much room for weeds but inevitably, they find their way in and around and sometimes through the garden plants. But I don’t really mind. Weeding makes me feel as if I have just a little bit of control over something in life! Even if it’s temporary.