There is good news in weeds

• Do the worst weeds threaten to take over your garden?
• Do they suffocate and harm your precious plants?
• Are they robbing sunshine from parts of your space?
  

This certainly happens to me. The original Carolinian forest of Southwestern Ontario is trying to shoot up black walnut trees; little lindens and maples are trying to grow around my forest garden. Many of them are on the other side of the fence, on my neighbour’s property and I don’t always have the access to cut them down.

A jungle on the corner of our neighbour’s yard tries to overgrow the corner of our garden and threatens my most successful two-year old apple tree. In this jungle, a boxelder maple grows a foot a day (well maybe two or three days, but it grows fast!). A little leaf linden is intertwined in the chain link fence, gloating at my unwillingness to damage my saws for the sake of cutting it down, and an overgrown, super vigorous forsythia seems like a growing monster, blocking airflow and sunlight.

In another adjacent property (There are no less than five properties adjacent to ours) there is a trumpet vine jumping over the old fence and aiming at my three-year old, thriving persimmon tree. From the property next to that a black walnut is lifting its head and reaching out in all directions. In the future it could tower over the neighbourhood, fixing juglone into the soil of my garden and dictating what will and will not grow.

But I am not a looser. Should these weeds threaten me? Not at all!
It can all work to the benefit of your garden. All it takes is careful observation to see exactly how. No stressing any more about weeds. All and ANY unwanted growth is a golden opportunity for available chop and drop materials. Free, recycled, organic matter that has stored all the great energy of the sun and many tons of nutrients; carbon, nitrogen, trace elements, etc. Local energy, produced right there at your garden and is fed back to the soil to enrich and make it deep and alive.

Coppice. Pollard. Chop. Cover your garden’s soil. Shelter your soil with a cooling cover from the extreme summer heat. Keep it from temperature and moisture fluctuations that can shock the plants. Allow the soil microorganisms to thrive and convert organic matter to nutrients that feed your plants.

So now, look at all the weeds. They are a gift for you to use. Observe them over time and through the seasons and grow (pun intended) to know their services.
Observe the value that is offered by each weed, plant, organic materials, and give attention to utilizing them to the benefit of your land by improving its soil.

The dark clouds over our lives, the shadows – are they really against us? If you feel oppressed by weeds or anything else – know that is a lie. All we need is to learn how to make it work for us.  When you seek freedom and security, you will be able to be free of oppression and your garden – free of weeds.

My garden is relaxed more than ever. Yes, it is the summer of COVID and I, the gardener, had more time for garden attention and observation. Even that worked for good in some ways.

Have long, tap-rooted dandelions and queen Ann’s Lace? It is breaking up compaction in the soil and improving soil aggregation, which means: preventing it from becoming too dense, allowing oxygen, moisture, micro organisms and nutrients to linger in between the well-structured aggregates.
Have lamb’s quarters? Your soil is fertile. Enjoy! They are more delicious and nutritious than lettuce.
Have bind weed? Your soil is being deeply aerated by its long reaching root system, allowing all soil biology goodness to accumulate along the borrowing roots and thus inviting the roots of your precious trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants to thrive in their location. You can easily pull their green growth away dry it in the sun and drop back down on the lucky ground.
Have clover? Nature has fertilized your garden with nitrogen free of charge.

Some bring benefits, some cause no harm and some – will lay to decompose on the ground.
Seeing weeds? Be happy! Your soil is improving.