Growing weed... lots of weed.

Growing Weed…lots of weed. I have a confession to make as I have been growing weed… lots of weed. In my city mouse years I like the rest of suburban dwellers sprayed herbicides in order to have a pristine ‘weedless’ lawn. The goal was to have a golf course like turf and great homeowner pride was taken in not having something like a’ god forbid’ dandelion blemishing that green expanse. A lot of money is spent to maintain that ideal…and the bottom line is that we are spraying poison. There’s a reason those signs are placed to keep pets off freshly sprayed yards. In the country I don’t have a Chem – Lawn bill as those very weeds we worked so hard to remove are the very ones that are nitrogen fixing and good for the earth such as clover and alfalfa. I don’t have the worry that neighbors will complain that my weed seed is going to ruin their lawns as my closest neighbor is at least a half a mile away. In fact, here in the Valley we have areas due to the steep terrain that we have even stopped mowing to be ‘naturalized.’ July is my favorite month as all the wild flowers go crazy dotting the hillside and we have even spread some native wild flower seed to help return it to its natural state. . Yet when you plant a garden, you usually have a ‘plan‘ of what you want growing where. Perhaps this is why gardeners call a ‘weed’ anything that is growing where we don’t want it to grow. With the help of Mother Nature native seeds are spread. Whether it’s the wind/ animals helping spread that seed there is stuff that I never planted that appears and a decision has to be made whether to leave it/remove it. Sometimes I wait to let it flower and decide whether I like it or not. The problem comes if it is invasive and smothers other plants. Yesterday was once such day. I am always behind in weeding but even more so since the accident, bugs and the unusual heat. The recent rains helped make that weeding more feasible and there’s a lifetime of weeding to do. I had planted flower seed in front of the coop but now it was way overgrown and I couldn’t even distinguish where the new plantings were. I had a lot of one plant I didn’t recognize. I should have known if it was that prolific it probably wasn’t what I planted. As it turns out Irv informed me last night that I had a great crop of ‘pig weed’. I had to laugh … Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder right here in the End of the Rainbow Valley even with all its weeds…