It’s spring. The weeds are back in force. But somehow this year I just can’t get myself too riled up about them. It’s a combination of things:
- I’ve finally hired Oscar to deal with my garden overload. It came down to Oscar or tennis, and I chose Oscar. I look at the weeds and say “Oh, I must remember to tell Oscar to deal with that next time he comes.” Next time I see Oscar, though, he’s limping and I can’t understand his French any better than I did last time. I try to communicate about the weeds, but he’s obviously in pain and very busy so they remain. For the time being.
- I’ve decided that the horrible ones with the impossible-to-pull-out roots are hopeless. They win. I pull the stems off when I walk past them, and accept the fact that I will be doing this well into the autumn as they continue to grow back and get tougher.
- My weeds are nothing compared to these ones growing in the US that have Homeland Security’s knickers in a twist. The ones along the Texas-Mexico border are so big that whole communities of illegal aliens can hide in them for months at a time and no one will ever know they’re there. At least I don’t have to use a chainsaw to weed my garden. Puts things in perspective.
- I’d rather go running than work in the garden.
Nonetheless, I finally weeded our back slope this weekend. I had been feeling guilty about it for a while – we don’t see it at all, because it slopes down away from our yard. But the neighbors have it in full view. And it’s not pretty.
I removed two wheelbarrows of weeds from it and my arms got all scratched up because I stupidly wore short sleeves. The picture there doesn’t do it justice; that’s a HUGE bag and it’s jam-packed with weeds. The neighbor came out and commented as I was working. He said all the horrible-looking brown leaves must be the result of the cold snap we had this winter. I jumped on his diplomatic opening and agreed. I promised him this fall Oscar would raze the slope to a nubbins and there wouldn’t be any brown leaves next spring. Or weeds.
I have very understanding neighbors, definitely not a given in Switzerland. They could have raised a lot more of a ruckus about my yard neglect. On the other hand, I have never so much as peeped about the habit his wife has of chucking glass bottles full-force into the bin in their backyard late at night. We live in harmony.
I haven’t summoned the energy to weed the vegetable garden, and tomorrow is already the last day of May. I have planted some seeds in eggshells, but that’s more of an experiment than a true gardening commitment. They don’t seem to be hatching. If they do, I’ll take a picture.
Maybe in the coming days I’ll get inspired and clear out the weeds and buy some plantlings. I bought kale seeds while in the US last week, and they need to be planted, too. I can’t find edible kale in this country, so I had planned to grow my own. We shall see. I’ll keep you posted.
I grow kale a lot, and for many years let some of it go to seed and regrow itself. This worked well until the grass incursion exceeded the amount of bare soil for kale seeds to fall upon. But what I wanted to suggest was for you to plant the kale in the fall when it’s a little cooler. Or at least save some of the seeds for later. Maybe you can grow it in the summer there but it’s a cool weather crop. We get lots of leaves in spring and in the fall, sometimes over winter, too. Make sure it gets lots of water when there are hot spells. It might like a partly-shady spot for summertime. Just a suggestion. Good luck!