Learning to Garden Again: Warring with Weeds

And eventually, I could. I broke off several, but one fine moment came when I could feel it. That perfect spot for pulling - with my left hand!

I won't say it went easily. My therapists act as if I had said a bad word when I mention gardening, but reluctantly agreed that I could do so for 30 minutes a day. So it took several days to cover those miles of paving cracks. But when the carpetweed was gone, you could actually see the pavers again and even get a hint of their circular design.

Then I noticed that some of the purslane was starting to get buds. By all means this must not happen - flowers mean seeds which means even more purslane. But with my newly adept left hand I was able to slowly attack, starting with anything threatening to flower (and those numbers increased daily.)

Of course the daily increase in flower buds alerted me to a new problem. The purslane was not the only weed starting to bloom. So clearly a new diversionary tactic was called for.

Deadheading
Clearly deadheading will not kill a weed. But it will keep it from flowering and thus going to seed, thus creating even more weeds for me to deal with in the future. So it was simple. If I don't have or the capability to pull all the weeds, then I have to stop them from procreating.

This is much faster than weeding. Some flower heads can be snapped off easily, even between a numb thumb and forefinger. Some require scissors and a few forced me to trot out the pruning shears. Pruning was once my favorite gardening activity, but my current situation precludes exerting the kind of pressure on the shears that would actually eliminate any unwanted branches larger than an electrical wire. Nevertheless, the very feeling of those shears in my hand felt like a homecoming. Small pleasures. But small pleasures are what much of gardening is about.

Sometimes I deadheaded a plant right down to its base, my theory being that if I deprived it of sunlight by removing all its greenery it might eventually weaken and die. Maybe not - in actuality I admit that cutting a weed down is not much more effective than breaking it off at its roots - but it's faster, less painful and reveals even more of the paving pattern. One cannot get

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