Weeds
Lately I've posted quite a few pictures on facebook of my garden. I know not many people are interested in seeing picture after picture of the same plant in gradual stages of growth, but since this is most of what I'm doing these days, it seems appropriate.
Every few times I post pictures, I get a similar type of comment:
Jane Doe: Wow! No weeds!
My first reaction is usually to reign in the urge to inquire about the health of the commentor's eyes. My garden is full of weeds. This would be especially rude as people are just trying to be nice, but it's just plain not true. My garden is full of weeds.
Why is it full of weeds? Because I'm lazy. In fact, the Lazy Gardener is probably a more apt title for this blog than Eloquent Pedestrian, as I'm not sure I've been either of those things in this space. I like picking out plants, I like putting them in the ground, I like eating what comes off of them. All those in between steps usually get ignored. My tomatoes don't get pruned, I don't do any thing for soil health, and I don't hill my potatoes.
But weeds are my greatest sin. I clear once a season and then I don't do anything. So without further explanation, here are some ways to tell if that green thing in my facebook picture is a weed:
1. Is it in the foreground of the shot?
This year especially I have not planted my plants very close together at all. This means that most of my pictures feature a solitary plant parked in the middle of the frame and not much else. If it's extraneous, it's probably a weed.
2. Is it planted in a nice straight grid or row?
No matter how hard I try to plant randomly, or how many things I read telling me to plant in patches, or squares, or octagons, I always end up planting things in grids of rows. Weeds, though, are not bound by this problem.
3. Does it look prickly?
Several years ago we let a thorn plant get big enough to flower because it looked "pretty". Now we can pull out a dozen every time we go outside. (Roses are an obvious exception to this rule, but since they're so pretty and covered in Japanese Beetles, they're pretty easy to spot and so I don't cover them)
4. Is it in focus?
Then it's definitely a weed. My camera is a bit like a two year old who needs a nap, and will do anything to stay awake. It will not focus on a plant I want to take a picture of, it likes grass, and wooden fences, and cement. This results in dozens of blurry rose pictures on my hard drive.
5. Is it thriving and growing in every direction, flowering and producing and looking magnificent?
Yup, definitely a weed. Don't get me wrong, my plants are doing really well this year considering the heat. But I don't get wild and bountiful plants, probably because of that whole lazy issue. If you see tons of it, it's probably Creeping Charlie.
Ready to test your new set of skills? When I mentioned this problem, Mom pointed out that the intentionally planted are always in focus, so I went out and had a weed photo shoot.
Then I spent a few days weeding.
Every few times I post pictures, I get a similar type of comment:
My first reaction is usually to reign in the urge to inquire about the health of the commentor's eyes. My garden is full of weeds. This would be especially rude as people are just trying to be nice, but it's just plain not true. My garden is full of weeds.
Why is it full of weeds? Because I'm lazy. In fact, the Lazy Gardener is probably a more apt title for this blog than Eloquent Pedestrian, as I'm not sure I've been either of those things in this space. I like picking out plants, I like putting them in the ground, I like eating what comes off of them. All those in between steps usually get ignored. My tomatoes don't get pruned, I don't do any thing for soil health, and I don't hill my potatoes.
But weeds are my greatest sin. I clear once a season and then I don't do anything. So without further explanation, here are some ways to tell if that green thing in my facebook picture is a weed:
1. Is it in the foreground of the shot?
This year especially I have not planted my plants very close together at all. This means that most of my pictures feature a solitary plant parked in the middle of the frame and not much else. If it's extraneous, it's probably a weed.
No matter how hard I try to plant randomly, or how many things I read telling me to plant in patches, or squares, or octagons, I always end up planting things in grids of rows. Weeds, though, are not bound by this problem.
3. Does it look prickly?
Several years ago we let a thorn plant get big enough to flower because it looked "pretty". Now we can pull out a dozen every time we go outside. (Roses are an obvious exception to this rule, but since they're so pretty and covered in Japanese Beetles, they're pretty easy to spot and so I don't cover them)
4. Is it in focus?
Then it's definitely a weed. My camera is a bit like a two year old who needs a nap, and will do anything to stay awake. It will not focus on a plant I want to take a picture of, it likes grass, and wooden fences, and cement. This results in dozens of blurry rose pictures on my hard drive.
Yup, definitely a weed. Don't get me wrong, my plants are doing really well this year considering the heat. But I don't get wild and bountiful plants, probably because of that whole lazy issue. If you see tons of it, it's probably Creeping Charlie.
Ready to test your new set of skills? When I mentioned this problem, Mom pointed out that the intentionally planted are always in focus, so I went out and had a weed photo shoot.
Then I spent a few days weeding.
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