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A Gardener's Lessons

© Marge Talt

The education of a gardener is a life-long endeavor. For some of us, lessons are learned to be forgotten and relearned when we repeat the same durn mistakes over and over again - one of these years, I will learn to stake my peonies in time. Some lessons stick in our brains; some simply do not. Despite the marvels of the internet, permitting us to benefit from the wisdom of others world-wide, most gardening lessons are learned (and re-learned) "hands on".

Weeds - Seeds

Weeds are one of the gardener's first lessons. We encounter them as soon as we turn soil and begin to plant. Eventually, if we pay attention, we learn to distinguish our own particular garden weeds from the plants we want to grow. We learn to identify their seedlings. We learn, painfully, that if we allow them to go to seed, our weeding increases ten-fold the next season.

If we are of inquiring mind, we want to put a name to our enemy. Once identified, we learn about the plants themselves; their growth habits and requirements; the better to combat them. This evolution from grubbing them out or grabbing the herbicide to knowing the plant does not occur overnight; it takes years, and a certain amount of research.

Seeds and weeds go hand in hand. My first encounter with this lesson was some thirty years ago when I sowed my first packet of flower seeds. My prior gardening experience was entirely vegetable; all seeds sown in nice straight rows in the garden, easily identifiable.

I remember lusting for some flower I'd seen in a seed catalog. I envisioned a highly decorative tub at my front door, overflowing with blooms all summer long. To this end, I found an unused wash-tub and filled it with garden soil. The tub had no drainage holes, but it was just the right size.

I wanted a tub full of flowers, not tight rows of flowers, so I scattered the seed on the soil. I watered and waited. In no time, small green plants appeared. I was delighted. Not having a clue what "my" seedlings should look like, I assumed that the ones that looked the same were "mine" and pulled out all the others. I do not remember what the flower was that I had planted, but to this day, I do recall that I ended up with the nicest tub full of smartweed on the east coast. Of course, this wasn't obvious until the plants started to mature and it penetrated my brain that they looked awfully like plants I pulled regularly in the vegetable garden. This is a weed very fond of wet soil. It thrived in my tub full of soggy clay.

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