Weeding

I spent some time at a community garden yesterday removing weeds from some raised beds of unseeded asparagus. Unseeded asparagus has thin, long, wispy branches and is easy to tell apart from the teardrop- or grass-shaped leaves that make up most small weeds. Also planted on the bed, though, were some tomato plants, which we were instructed to pull as well.

I asked about these tomato plants. "They're food - why pull them?"

"We'll plant tomatoes later. They're important to the crop too. For now, we just want to keep and grow the asparagus."

So I pulled all the weeds - big, small, and tomatoes too - and gave the garden a good once-over before declaring our job done. This morning I learned something that helped me to internalize the process of metaphorical gardening I've been going through in my day-to-day life.

In order to plant a garden, one needs to do a lot of weeding and sometimes remove the fruits one usually enjoys if they don't fit. Ideally with the goal of replanting them again when the time is right.

Published July 10, 2017