Catch weeds while you can
From some perspectives, the walkway from the car to my house is beautiful.
“You must have been doing a lot of work. Your garden is beautiful,” Michael said when he dropped me off in my driveway at night.
We have both been so busy that the only time for a friendly chat was on a shared jaunt to Walmart. I must admit, the plants along my front walkway do look nicer than the planter boxes in the parking lot at Walmart.
Under my discerning eye, I think of my garden as neglected. However, in the glow of the headlights of Michael's car, the golden flowers of overgrown calendula popped out from the darkness. In the fall, I bought a bag of freesia bulbs and thumbed them into soil in pots. That night, the yellow freesia reflected in the beam of light.
None of those flowers were the result of recent work, but work done many months ago finally paid off.
When I stop to pull a few weeds I sometimes hear my dad's voice. “A beautiful garden is the accumulation of small tasks,” Dad would say as if he was delivering universal wisdom. “If you spend five minutes a day, over time your work will reward you.”
An extended rainy spell usually motivates me to pull weeds. The ground is soft, and weed maintenance is less of a power struggle than after the soil has hardened.
Easter Sunday, I woke up early for a Zoom meeting with some of my international friends, but realized other countries do not observe daylight savings time. I had an hour to kill weeds.
Catchweed caught my eye.
After decades of gardening, the instinct to pull weeds is similar to a Border Collie that can't help herd sheep, goats, children … I bend and yank when walking across campus to work and even at the parking lot at Walmart.
Catchweed, more aptly nicknamed Velcro weeds, is almost “in bloom” right now, which means there's a window for timely destruction. Theoretically, Velcro weed “blooms” are tiny white flowers. However, I've been tugging this plant for so many decades, I can't recall ever seeing a flower. I had to use the Internet to find an image of the flower online.
The big bummer is that I'm literally allergic to the plant. I should wear gloves, but gloves alter the feeling of the weed in my hand and detract from the satisfaction of feeling the plant dislodge from the root. However, I've learned the hard way that I'm allergic to catchweed and several other undesirable plants. Red welts develop on my wrists and forearms.
Over time, I learned to use Tecnu after gardening. It's sold to prevent rashes after accidentally touching poison oak or ivy while hiking. If I remember to use it after gardening, I can avoid a rash that makes me
look like I've wandered through brambles.
After Michael's comment about the front walkway, I found some time to dedicate to the lawn. The soil is wet, and I've been tearing out sections of the lawn bit- by- bit. I cover the bare spot with leftover cardboard boxes and dump some mulch on top.
If I continue this process, one bag at at time, my lawn may some day look beautifully mulched and require minimum maintenance. What I will do then, I have no idea. Maybe I'll learn to habitually clean the inside of my house.