Long
Live the Weeds!
“...What
would the world be, once bereft
of
wet and wildness? Let them be left.
O
let them be left, wildness and wet.
Long
live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
Gerard
Manley Hopkins (excerpt from “Inversnaid”)
Along
with the summer's bounty come weeds. Lots of people put down black
plastic or shade cloth before they plant to keep weeds out. Some
people work tirelessly to rip them out by the roots. I do
neither—call it laziness, or call it empathy. There is, to me,
something inherently harsh about spreading black plastic over the
earth in an area where the daytime temperatures routinely rise into
the 90's. Perhaps I am wrong, but wouldn't it cook the soil
underneath? And, not only the soil, but every creature that lives in
the soil.
My
garden, which runs the length of a sidewalk, perhaps 50 feet,
displays thriving hosta and day lilies, rosemary and iris, roses,
thyme, lemon balm, daises, and...weeds. Occasionally, I stop long
enough to tug out a wild onion, pull up a dandelion, or a sprig of
rabbit brier that is wrapping itself around the rosemary. Now and
then, I thin out the lemon balm,
but for the most part, I leave well enough alone. Perhaps it is
because I identify with the weeds!
I
think we've become a little bit obsessed with perfection in our
gardens. I've mentioned before the woman up the street, who has now
cut down three perfectly healthy trees because she was tired of nuts
falling in her yard! I've noticed that the fireflies are beginning to
light up the night, only there are many fewer than there were just
ten years ago because folks spray pesticides and herbicides to
support their carpet of green grass. That's also one of the reasons
our bee population has been cut by 40% just since last year.
I'm
in favor of the wet and wild; it can grow here in my yard for as long
as I'm around. The morning glories and trumpet vines feed everything
from humming birds to ants. Let this be their sanctuary. Let the
earth breathe and produce its wild flowers, its clover and, by all
means, fireflies. Let the bees fill up on nectar and spread pollen.
“Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet!”
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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