The Garden

I probably should have taken a picture of the garden yesterday before weeding, although it doesn't look all that different after one day of frantic cutting and pulling. Doing a good job of weeding takes a long time. Even big plants need room to grow and sunlight to thrive. Weeding around them brings them out, defining them to the observer. I find that if I do a little weeding regularly that I can see where I've been and remember the progress. It's pretty overwhelming. This summer I will read again All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner if I can find it. Every time I go to the garden I am reminded of that book. The binder weed gets me started thinking, a little vine that wraps itself around other plants grows near bigger weeds throughout the garden. As it matures, pretty pink flowers reveal that it is taking over, almost impossible to remove because of its intertwining. And that gets me thinking about a million things in life, especially how insidious vines can wrap around us until it's hard to remove them. Bad habits are like that, things that find a place to grow underneath and around.