Weeding is the creepiest thing ever. I was just out in the backyard, where our garden is full of plants that will not bear tasty and nutritious leaves and fruits. Or at least, not the ones we’re aiming for – I recognize that dandelion leaves are a great contribution to salads and whatever kind of grass this is, is probably very good for you as well, but they can grow in the other eighty percent of the yard.

So I was removing them from the garden plot. I’d dig my fingers in and squirm around deep into the soil and down, down, down, go the roots, and weeds, by their very nature, have the best roots. Some of them are fat and juicy and wriggly, thick and white, and they’re bigger than you could ever imagine, this beast living underground. And some of them, like this grass, has these runner weeds that wriggle and thrive for miles and miles just under the surface, sending up new shoots every few inches, forming this unstoppable colony of pale vigor. For every tiny, innocuous blade of photosynthesizing surface up top, I’d find a veritable monster below. And then I’d settle back on my heels and stare across the garden plot and imagine all of those writhing, white worms of roots out there, fat and happy, biding their time.

Yech.

That’s all for now. Just the creepiness of weeds. For more good reading, check out the tales of my pals Erin and Alina, who are settling in to their new national park homes for the summer!

http://likeaflowerneedsmanure.blogspot.com/

http://wolffinthewild.wordpress.com/