Weeding is a necessary task for every gardener, especially in the spring, though summer and fall have their weeding moments too.
But in the spring, amongst the emerging foliage of perennials, in plain sight in the vegetable garden beds, and along every path, you see weeds everywhere.
But sometimes, oftentimes, weeds are tricky little plants to see. They hide. They nestle in with other plants making them hard to spot.
But there is one sure way to spot a weed you missed after an afternoon of weeding when you were sure you’d pulled every weed around.
And that is to put on your “nice” clothes, that one last pair of jeans you are trying to keep from having permanent mud stains on the knees which seem to be on every other pair of jeans. Pair it with a shirt you don’t want to get a smear of mud on.
Then head out to your garden for just a minute. Perhaps to check the rain gauge or just to take a picture of the alliums that are starting to bloom.
Then you’ll spot THE MOST AWFUL WEED THAT MUST BE PULLED RIGHT NOW.
Yep, that’s right. The ability to spot weeds is heightened by the clothes you wear, a fact most gardeners eventually learn.
The nicer your clothes, the more likely you are to spot a weed that MUST BE PULLED IMMEDIATELY or your garden could be in imminent danger. Perhaps that weed is within minutes of dropping a thousand more weed seeds on your garden, or maybe, underground, it is growing roots at a speed that would boggle your mind if you saw it above ground.
There is no time to change clothes! That weed must now be pulled while you are wearing your good clothes! Your nice jeans!
So you will pull that weed right there while wearing your good jeans.
You will be careful. You will… add to your shopping list to buy a new pair of jeans because your good jeans now look like someone gardens in them.
Because you can’t pull just one weed once you spot it. There is always another weed nearby, and that weed over there, and now you have a nice little handful of weeds, which you drop down on the lawn to throw away later. Then without thinking, you wipe your hands over your jeans to clean off the mud, and now you must change clothes and get some new “nice” jeans.
And that is how you spot hard-to-see weeds in your garden.
I can’t think of anything more true than getting ready to go some place and walking down the driveway and seeing that ONE weed that you could easily pull. But, wait, there is one pretty close to it so I’ll just get that one two. And, so it goes. Yes going out clothes end up joining the gardening clothes at times–certainly the shoes have a problem.