Weeds Among Us

Weeds among us have been on my mind all week. When we have weeds in our gardens, we do whatever it takes to get rid of them. Some might prefer to rid the weeds among us with serious chemicals. I saw a weed killer the other day that promised to rid the garden for 90 days, another for 9 months and then one promised to clear the ground.  Kind of drastic if you ask me.  Anything that totally clears the ground will not allow anything to grow – wanted or unwanted. That could pose a problem, at least in my diverse garden. Why would anyone want to rid an area of everything….for a weed or two??? A weed is merely a plant out of place…we’ve all been there, right?  Out of place for a minute.

I ventured to a concert a few years ago with a co-worker that featured music from a harpsichord…at the end of the work day…I was a tad tired from gardening the night before, but I wanted to see if it was something that I could enjoy, like opera or jazz. I wanted to try something new, something that I was not familiar with.

BIG MISTAKE!!!

I could simply not identify with the music…..a bit too slow….a bit boring and I seriously could not identify with anyone else in the room…except my co-worker, because she kept nudging me to wake me up. Some weeds hide under foliage….like I hid on the side of the room towards the rear, so I would not be noticed. Yeah….that evening I was the weed among the concert attendees. Have I judged the venue for providing what in my mind was a less than stellar or exciting program – NO.  Did I say that the venue should be closed down – NO.  Instead, I started to dig a little deeper, learn more about what was being offered at future featured events at the same venue. That night, the music was like a weed in my world….something out of place, not pleasing to me and definitely something I did not understand.

Similar to the world (my garden) we live in today. We should learn more about each other, before dismissing each other. We should not shut each other down without giving each other a chance to share our experiences….and our differences. Maybe, just maybe, what some of us consider weeds can prove to be beneficial….like plantain….or dandelions…or purslane. If care is not taken to understand what one considers a weed and dealt with properly, the residual effect could simply not be a pleasant one. Nutsedge can stand out in the garden among plants like it belongs there. However, that Chartreuse leaf stands out like a sore thumb. Nutsedge if yanked out and the little nodules left will give you a crop of many….for years to come. There are some weed seeds that live for many years, under the surface of the soil – even when we think we have eradicated them. When we plant, we disturb the soil and the sleeping weed seeds surface and takes root in the garden…in our world.

How do you handle your weeds???  Do you handle them with the strongest eradication method possible…or do you research them, find out if they are beneficial or not?  Do you get to know what you consider your weeds and realize that each one just might need to be handled differently, with a little understanding…a little care?

The weeds among us – let’s get to know them, understand them and sometimes….we must even to learn to live with them. If nothing else, we can learn from them. If this box of tomatoes was all the same and tasted the same, how excited do you think we would be to see yet another box of simply red tomatoes??

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