Weedy Intervention

I hate weeds because I hate weeding.  As a boy I was constantly trying to find the easiest way to get rid of the weeds I’d been assigned to remove.  The universal herbicides so readily available now were nonexistent then so I had to either dig or pull them.  Neither was easy.  I’ve learned quite a few things from my dealings with weeds over the years.  They start growing before anything else even hears the seasonal alarm clock.  Unlike productive plants, they grow voraciously without any attention or care.  Weeds grow relentlessly and fast, even in the most unforgiving of environments.  They grow in unprepared soil, in concrete cracks, even in the rain gutters on my house.  They don’t need fertilizer or even water, or at least it would seem.  I once had to remove some slabs of concrete and underneath was a massive ball of field bindweed, completely white from lack of sunlight and resembling a huge bowl of spaghetti.  It had flourished under the concrete without any evident water or light.  Have I mentioned how I hate weeds?  Productive plants require a properly prepared seedbed, constant attention and care to generate a good harvest.  None of that applies to weeds.  If left unattended, weeds can overpower productive plants and ruin a crop or garden.  A weed produces far more seeds than a domestic plant.  If a weed is allowed to reach maturity and reproduce without intervention, a dear price will be paid in the future when dealing with its offspring.  I came to understand that cutting the weeds was a fool’s errand.  Removing or destroying the root of the weed was essential if you didn’t want to be perpetually cutting.  If the root was left intact, the pernicious plant would begin propagating immediately.  I found that weeds are easier to remove when they are small.   Their root systems have not had sufficient time to establish themselves and can be dug out easily.  The only problem with removing them early in the growth cycle is that some weeds imitate the appearance of the productive plant among which they grow.   Sometimes it is necessary to let both the weed and the good plant grow together for a while before the one can be distinguished from the other.  However, some weeds have aggressive root systems that if left to grow until they are a bit bigger, pulling them can harm the productive plants growing nearby.  Two of the most nefarious weeds I have dealt with are field bindweed and white top.  They are both very aggressive and extremely resistant to harm.  They have extensive root systems which make them nearly impossible to eliminate.  The field bindweed is a vine-like menace that entwines itself around a productive plant in such a fashion that removing it without harming the favored plant becomes impossible.  The white top spreads at an alarming rate and can choke out an entire field of productive growth.  White top cannot be removed by digging.  Digging only spreads it.  It is a horrendous enemy to productive farming or gardening.  Like the ever present territorial battle between weeds and domestic plants, life is like any garden or field in which the battle between production and destruction occurs.  The longer I live the more I have come to realize that my life is also subject to weed-like enemies, which if left unnoticed or unattended, can overrun my positive inclinations and entangle me in a morass of easily accepted but unproductive interests, activities, and distractions.  These insidious, time wasting inclinations can ruin even the most promising potential in any person if left to infect and imperil without intervention.  Farming is hard work.  So is life.  Ease, without any obligations or aspirations may seem pretty, like the white blossoms of field bindweed, but the resultant harvests will be far too similar to provide any genuine satisfaction for either.