The Weeds May Be Winning

READSTOWN, WI

I’d like to think that I’m winning the war on goldenrod, which if left unchecked, I am quite certain would take over the entire acre. Distracted from mulching by the new growth, I’ve spent whole mornings hoeing and hand weeding around the tiny tomato seedlings, leaving a trail of wilted plants behind me. But the goldenrod inevitably responds with enthusiastic new growth the next day, bright green stalks stretching up into the morning sun.

While all of suburbia seems to spend their Saturday afternoons convincing grass to grow on their lawns, we seem to have no trouble growing it in the garden, despite our countermeasures. It would seem that our efforts to keep the pea sprouts sufficiently watered are paying off in sod.

Meanwhile, across the aisle in the east side of the garden, the parsnips are coming in rather nicely. In the potato trenches. With no interest in eating the wild parsnips whose leaves are known to raise boils on gardeners’ skin, I carefully pull each individual stalk from deep in the newly turned earth with gloved hands. With the potatoes a ways off, the primary competition for the parsnips is a prickly weed that has run rampant in this small section of the garden. Fortunately, they have not spread much beyond the potato beds, but I do believe they increase in size and ferocity with each passing minute. What started out as a grisly little patch at breakfast is by lunch a vicious bush of thorny leaves. I find pulling these prickly weeds to be particularly satisfying, yanking the harsh green plant from deep in the earth, leaving behind me a bare patch of earth where I envision the lush foliage of the potato vines.      

I'd like to think that as time goes on, the ratio of weeds to vegetables will tip in our favor. In the meantime, I'll be cursing the grass and pulling out goldenrod.