Pulling New Weeds

Some of you dear blog readers may remember how much I enjoy pulling weeds.  Yanking those ugly vegetative intruders out of garden or flower bed is one of my favorite outdoor sports!  When I spend several hours at this task, I feel as if I have struck a blow against evil in the world – or at least the garden! – and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment.

So I grieved a bit when we moved into a condominium where outside maintenance is cared for by others.  “No more weeds to pull,” I thought sadly.  On our daily walks I kept noticing the weeds growing in flower beds in public places and it was all I could do to restrain myself from weeding on public property.

However, there’s good news.  The second week we were here in Westerville, the church had scheduled a workday for the coming Saturday.  We went, and Bruce got busily involved in some cleaning and maintenance projects inside the building.  Some workers were cutting down dead trees in the woods area behind the building.  Others were building and installing benches for bird watching around the prairie area in the front of the church property.

I looked around for a task I could do and I spotted a flower bed, long neglected and nearly overgrown!  So I pulled on my garden gloves and set to work.  Some of the weeds were taller than I am.  What a joy to pull or dig them out and discover flowers hiding behind them and good fertile soil beneath!

There were lots of thistles – which reminded me of the grass burrs of south Texas!  There were long strings of a weedy vine that climbed up and over everything in its path – rather like kudzu but not quite as aggressive.  There were roots and stems of long dead shrubs and trees, and grasses of many different types.  It was like a party for this weed-pulling enthusiast!

Bruce came to inform me that it was time for lunch.  I had been working for 2 and a half hours, but I wasn’t done yet!  I didn’t want to quit until I had rescued all the flowers and had completed my job.  He bribed me away from my work with two promises: First, lunch out.  Second, we’d come back and finish the job as soon as possible!

I helped carry off the mountain of vegetation I had removed from the flower bed.  Then  reluctantly I took off my gardening gloves and put away my digging and cutting tools.  Lunch out is even more attractive to me than pulling weeds, so off we went to the nearest Subway restaurant.  But my sadness had lifted because I had found new weeds to pull.