Channeling my zen

When I almost bailed on a social engagement last week because I “had to” weed my yard/flower gardens/overgrown chaotic nightmare, I knew things needed to change.

Weeding should never ever come before friends. If, like most normal human beings, you think that would need not be said, then you’re obviously new here.

Previously weeded patch newly cleared of debris and weeds and hangers-on:

I was starting to get stressed out about weeding. Yeah. Weeding was stressing me out.

If I was sitting down EVER, I would immediately think “I should be weeding”. I started to come up with errands and things that I needed to do, just so I could get out of my self-imposed weeding.

Have I mentioned that I’m a little crazy?

Let me tell you something about weeding, in case you’ve not had the fortune to inherit a beautiful yet time-consuming yard: weeding sucks. No matter how you try to frame it (meditative – yes; restorative – yes; gets you outside in the fresh air – yes; exercise – yes) it still sucks.

It’s hard work. Manual labor, really.

The payoff is generally well worth it, but there is a limit people. And I am beyond it. I’ve surpassed my limit.

This is the payoff. Pretty, but worth it? You be the judge.

Here’s what happened. I was starting to care more about the flower beds that *gaspshockhorror* my VEGETABLES.

Now I am a vegetable gardener first, and only recently started in on this whole flower gardening business. I like it, sure, but the flowers aren’t edible. The veggies? Are.

And I’m counting on some of these plants to fuel my addiction to summer produce grilling.

Poor, neglected veggies.

Luckily, my vegetable gardening prowess is in full effect and those buggars are growing and flourishing all on their own, with only minimal help (i.e. watering) and encouragement (i.e. fertilizer) from me.

Reason # 1983 that vegetable gardening is better than flower gardening.

I’ve already been eating from the garden, too. Raspberries, swiss chard, radishes, and lettuce have produced enough to start harvesting them. Herbs too – chives, basil, and thyme are eaten almost daily.

I’m gonna be a green bean when I grow up!

So back to my original point – weeding sucks. But, what I learned yesterday is that weeding sucks a little bit less in areas that have already been weeded once!

So my new mantra/outlook/plan/whathaveyou is to shift from weeding weeding to maintenance weeding. (It’s a thing. A thing I just made up.)

Maintenance weeding (verb): To weed only areas that have been weeded within the last three weeks. Does not involve the use of many tools, and is much more pleasant than full-on weeding.

I was formulating my new approach while I was out doing a little maintenance weeding. What had taken me nearly four full days to weed the first time, I finished in under two hours.

And then I scattered some anti-weed pellets on those beds, because apparently this $20 bottle of magic will stop the weeds from re-growing.

We’ll see about that. (I’m skeptical.)

What happened next will, again, only surprise you newcomers.

As I was taking photos of my hard work, I rounded this corner to check on my teeny tiny strawberries, growing in a spot that I haven’t ever weeded.

Look what happened.

I couldn’t help it! The strawberries were being choked out by…other stuff. That other stuff had to go!! It wasn’t my fault.

Just up the sidewalk lies this chaos and I stopped to take a photo and then kept right on walking.

No new weeding, kids. Not for this girl.

How was your weekend? Did you get out and enjoy the beautiful weather? I went for a great bike ride on Sunday morning before all this weeding nonsense and caught the last two sets of the men’s Wimbledon match.

Little known factoid about me: I played tennis in high school. Poorly, but I played.

What sports did/do you play or watch?

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