Right now I am still in deep weeds.
Yes I weed. In general I find it meditative. Relaxing. I stream music on headphones, the air is fresh, I like new growth and I get really in touch with my physical limitations. I dream. I stretch. I change things. I mulch, I pull, I weed.
But what if I didn’t? I am definitely going slower and the weeds seem to be growing faster.
Would it matter if I stopped?
At the patch it matters A TON! Oh my. I would be a goner. Say Bye Bye. I must weed, so I do weed, but I still worry that I don’t weed enough. If I am a good person but a bad weeder my days are numbered.
In some shady forested spots in my home garden very little would change if I never weeded. A few more snowberries perhaps.
Another side of my home garden is a sunny mixed annual and perennial bed with sub shrubs frequented by humming birds and bees. Can I stop weeding? Oh no no no no no. You must weed, or the worst case scenario happens....the Mother of Mothers steps in.
And Mother Nature....she doesn’t see a perennial bed quite like I do. She favors a meadow with tons more grass. She likes the quacks and a multitude of other bullies.
BTW, Mother also has no aversion to ivy. “Trail, climb or spread anywhere!” she says and all the while she looks away like the inattentive mother she is...knowing now there will be ineffective policing. She disowns me. She sees me as the problem. What I am doing is nothing she goes along with, it’s against her teachings, against nature. Even if I wear Birkenstocks while weeding. Bind weed? Horsetails? Now we are really fighting.
“All the better to get the best of you, you control freak of a human! I am the Mother of Nature!! Bend the knee! Honor me! Succumb to my choice of a perennial with persistence. “ “What’s the matter with Horsetails? Use them as brushes, they are high in silica” she says. But she doesn’t really use them either. That I can figure out or see.
“You say you are organic? You don’t use chemicals? I am Mother Nature!! I am hella older and wiser than you. You think I can be beat in a game of ‘Who Is More Organic than me’? Oh no no no no no. “
“But Mother I say...all things organic are not always good...there are a lot of organic poisons. Almost all poisons are organic. Some plants are dangerous, some are thugs.” She shrugs, waves me off. She doesn’t have to listen to this.
“Go ahead and weed. But eat the bitter cress, the wood sorrel, the dandelion. Eat as much as you possibly can, serve your guests, take bags to the food bank. They’ll be back. In spades. Plant the dinosaur kale, let it seed just the once. All of those seeds last for years. Lucky you. Dinosaurs forever!” She and I are not on the same page all the time.
Yes, I weed. And Mother and I get into it a bit, but we still love each other. I’m not really sure who has the last laugh, or if it matters. We enjoy each other, and give each other space and the time of day.
And so....I plant peas in rows at the patch but also let Mother have her bit of chaos in the small 10 x 10 plot number 3 that I rent and weed for now. (She pays no rent, pays no attention to numbers, and doesn’t think in lines. Don’t try to make her. )
This post was written by Solstice gardener Mardi Clements in April 2019. Springtime feelings about weeds are just as relevant mid-summer as they were at the start of our gardening season!