Gardening

Green Weeding

By Bess Taylor

In our civilization, technology has advanced to a point where we have the luxury to take our noses away from the grindstone of survival long enough to look around and notice that some things need to be fixed before we destroy our resources. We love our automobiles, but if we want a planet to drive them upon, we have to change our fueling habits. Our cheap detergents make our clothes sparkle, but if we want life to continue to sparkle on our lovely earth, we have to bite the bullet and start using biodegradable ones. Reconfiguring our habits to benefit the environment is called “going green” and it can be practiced in the garden, too.

There are many wonderful gardening products that are designed with the environment in mind. I appreciate any alternatives to poisons especially with the constant flow of children and pets in our yard. My favorite is the beneficial nematode, a natural enemy of the Japanese beetle. You spray it around in the spring or fall, it seeps into the ground and selectively eats the beetle larvae. It sounds dreadful, but it’s so much nicer than having to put poison on heaps of Japanese beetles as they consume your roses, and it doesn’t threaten the butterflies, bees and birds.

There are many natural herbicides available, but most seem to be designed for general lawn care and not for use in your precious flowers and vegetable beds. I have spent many an hour pondering this sort of product in the garden center, only to read something alarming on the label and decide against it. Anyway, I figure I’ve probably been poisoned enough in my life, why sprinkle more poison on my garden? The only truly organic way to remove weeds from my flowerbeds is to use my organic hands.

Over the years, I have found some methods that make weeding more tolerable, and sometimes even enjoyable. They are:

1) Know your weeds. First of all, you need to know what to pull and what not to pull. Many seedlings look very similar, so I sometimes wait until I can positively recognize a plant as a weed before I pull it. (This also stalls for time!) I have learned to pull different weeds at different life stages. I pull dandelions and bindweeds as soon as they’re recognized. Wood sorrel, with its heart-shaped leaves and yellow flowers, will break off at the stem if you try to pull it when it’s tiny. I wait until it is sturdy enough to be grasped fully and pulled up roots and all.

2) Know your tools. I have quite a collection of weeding tools, but the one I use most is my trusty hand-cultivator. It looks like a sturdy one-edged knife on a short post and is really helpful in prying up tough weed roots. I pull the base of the weed stem with one hand, while the other pokes the hand-cultivator into the ground and lifts out the roots.

3) Weed early and weed often. I used to wait until I had a good crop of weeds before getting around to pulling them, which of course made it more of a chore. Now I do it routinely as I take my early morning stroll through the garden to see what’s up. Summer mornings are the best time to take in a garden in its full glory, while the air is cool and some of the mosquitoes are still asleep. I like to wander dreamily about, and if I notice a weed, I yank it out of the dewy ground before it knows what hit it.

4) Plant Invasives! Some perennial plants, like irises and daylilies, have a growth habit so dense that even weeds cannot disturb them. There will be plenty of gardeners who may be appalled at this suggestion, but it works for me. There are few vegetables that fit this description, but if you have a few carefree areas of your garden, you can focus more effort on the pickier parts.

5) Weeding is Therapy. Still stewing over that so-called friend, rude phone bank lady or the guy that cut you off in traffic? Go out and weed! As you wrestle with a stubborn taproot, imagine yourself extracting all the irritants from your life, one by one. Clear you garden and your mind at the same time.

6) Know your limits. I learned the limits of what my spine would tolerate the first year I started my garden, when I sprained my back, weeding. I was uncomfortable, but determined to finish and simply pushed myself too far. I now know to stop when I feel a twinge and take a break. The weeds can wait an hour, a day, even a week. There also comes a time in late summer when the weeds become just a little too rampant and the air gets just a little too humid and I decide to just sit back and let nature take its course. I reason that the weeds are good ground cover against moisture loss. Remember, a weed is only a plant that isn’t wanted and you may sometimes choose to decide that a particular one creates an artsy natural accent. It’s your garden. Job one is to enjoy it.