Rain forces me back inside this morning.
Last week, it was hot and dry. Today it is cool and WET. Nice weather for weeding. The roots release so much more easily when the soil is moist, so today is going to be a BIG weed day.
The vegetables are all in, and along with all the good beans, tomatoes, corn, etc. are PLENTY of weeds. The weeds amaze me. Wherever soil is exposed, (and believe me, we mulch with deep straw so there is little of that) a great variety of weeds appear. In fact, the weeds are growing better than some of the veggies!
Carrots, for example. OMG, we are on the third planting of carrot seeds, and still not one little green shoot has made its way up. But the weeds are having a blast. Same thing goes for a second seeding of chard and spinach. Nothing but weeds.
I went out to the onion patch last week and sighed a heavy heavy sigh. Where are the onions? There was a blanket of green, all shapes and sizes. OK, I know that round and oval are NOT onions, but, wow, the crab grass stalks look mightily like onion shoots. There was nothing to do but plop down; yep, set my butt on the straw covered walkway, and pluck ONE AT A TIME those invaders. Resistance in my mood was strong, but my desire for organic onions was stronger.
So, one at a time, gently gently, I searched out the onion sprouts and freed them from the trespassers. The sun was strong and there was a nice breeze. The swallows and blue birds were swooping around, and every now and then the cardinals would call. I looked up from time to time.... I was at eye level with the big-time weeds/wild flowers that fill the back field.... and, from time to time my eyes would get a few moments of weeds dancing, dancing, dancing... insects were there in the mix, too. And birds.
Pluck, pluck, pluck, oops that's an onion not a weed (stick it back in there, QUICK!), pluck, pluck, watch the weed-dance, watch some more, pluck, pluck, pluck, oops that's an onion not a weed (stick it back in there, QUICK! how could I make that mistake AGAIN???? be more careful, be more careful...), pluck, pluck, pluck....
You get the picture.
I used to use weeding as a meditation. You know, every weed I pulled was in honor of a negative impulse or emotion I was hoping to eliminate. "There you go envy. How about you miss-know-it-all? And, this one's for you worry! Fear? Well, let's pull ten weeds just for YOU!" Since I have ever so many negative impulses/emotions, I could weed into infinity with no worry of ever being done. That taught me some patience.
This new method is a different kind of meditation.... a much more mellow meditation.... and, before you know it, the onion patch was done. Done for last week, that is. I get to do that all over again THIS week.
Because so much of my time goes into getting rid of them, I have been thinking about weeds a lot. Their strength. Their persistence. Their VIGOR and resilience. Although I spend a tremendous amount of time ripping them out, I have come to have a great deal of respect for them. Out there in the back field, they are having a blast. It's only here, where I am making MY mark, that they must go. I often wonder if I am cultivating the wrong things. Perhaps, I should be learning more about finding ways to eat those weeds and all their parts... stems like asparagus, flowers like broccoli, roots like potatoes and carrots, leaves like chard.
But that would be a whole different story.
