I am a gardener. And not just a gardener, but an organic gardener. That means no insecticides, no pesticides, no weed killers. Although I must admit to using RoundUp this year to help me get rid of a pernicious patch of myrtle, but that is not the norm.
I am also the gardener. My brother shows up with his chain saw when needed. Where is all this going? It means I dig up weeds by hand. I have a very long relationship with digging weeds, starting as a young child at my mother's knee digging dandelions. I hated it. Hot, unsatisfying work.
This week it dawned on me. Just what is gardening? Yes, it is growing things, but whether flowers or vegetables, they need maintenance. And part, okay, the biggest part, of that is weeding. It is just part of the
process. It was a surprise to discover that spending this much
time on my knees with an often single-minded intensity on weeding is not
the chore it used to be. One morning I started before 7 am and got several hours of weeding in before the sun started to bake the soil. I was in the zone. I had reached the zen of weeding. Gather, dig, twist. That was all there was.
Currently I am spending a couple hours each day with my digger and trusty trug pulling weeds out of the lawns. The biggest problem is an infestation of Black Medic, a tiny leaved weed with a single taproot and spreading limbs that grow side ways through the lawn. It is not only blooming but many of them have the clusters of black seeds ready to pop and spread into the surrounding area. In addition there is bindweed and common mallow both with the dreaded taproots. When my sibs and I were little we called mallow the cheese plant because the seed vessel was round and flat and we ate them, pretending they were little cheeses.
But I digress. I gave myself a goal of a trug full of weeds a day. It is hard to stop at one trug when you are on a roll. Because of the relentless sun and heat factor I have been pulling an umbrella on a stand behind me so I can work in the shade. It really makes a difference.
What else makes a difference? Last year I overheard my neighbor talking to her children. "C'mon kids, the weeds are our friends today." It had rained the previous day and the soil was damp enough to let weeds slide up out of the ground. While it made me laugh with appreciation at the time, I too, prefer to weed after the rain, or after sprinkling the lawn. It is a wonderful way to connect with your garden. You hear the birds singing overhead, the zzzzip of the hummingbirds. If you are near something blooming you can hear the bees working. Yesterday I heard crickets for the first time this season.
A friend of mine who is going through a stressful time, recently told me she spent two hours in her garden mindlessly pulling weeds. It was the mindlessly word that got me. I was feeling as though I had reached a zen state while weeding. Now I'm thinking that mindless weeding is the same as a zen state.
In both instances you let everything go, it is a great way to detox from situations, let the brain quiet down and clear the mind. The anxieties fade into the background and lets the subconscious deal.
Maybe that isn't so mindless after all.
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