DRINKWALTER: Weeding through life

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July 14, 2008

Deb Drinkwalter The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Mon Jul 14, 2008, 10:39 AM EDT

After spending the Fourth of July weekend weeding, mulching and planting annuals in our flowerbeds, I had aches and pains in muscles that I forgot existed. With our daughter’s upcoming wedding, we have been sprucing up the place a little more than usual as we are hosting both the shower and the rehearsal dinner at our house.

I’ve been treating the gardens with Preen to help keep some of the weeds at bay and nourish the soil. Between that and all the rain and cooler weather, many of the perennials grew by leaps and bounds this year. The last few summers, Ray, an older gentleman friend of ours had given us several clumps of columbine from his garden. All the columbine I transplanted grew tall and flowered beautifully this spring. Ray passed away a few months ago, he would have been pleased at the way the flowers took off in our gardens. The plants are a great reminder of a nice man and avid gardener. Another friend, Marza has given us a several perennials from her English gardens and many of those are thriving beautifully this year.

Before moving to the town from our house in the city, we dug up some of the hostas that I named August lilies. Every August, a pretty white lily-like fragrant flower shoots out from the leafy plants, hence the name August lily. I also brought along some tiger lilies that I fondly refer to as ditch lilies. I originally got them several years ago on the side of a country road near a ditch. They have grown well everywhere I’ve planted them.

Each spring, it’s exciting to see what blooms in our new gardens. I can tell by the multitude of bulbs that I’ve found, while digging in the ground, that many perennials have been planted over the years. I’ve learned not be overzealous with the weeding. If I’m patient, many flowers appear that didn’t come up the year before. Every year tall leafy plants sprout up quickly and I’m always stumped trying to decide if they are weeds or not. I usually wait to see if they muster up any flowers before yanking them out of the ground.

I’m beginning to recognize that some of the tall hardy plants that come up effortlessly are just weeds. It seems like they are the hardest pull. While tugging at the unwanted foliage that is so deeply rooted, it’s easy to accidentally pull up some the frail pretty flowers. Why is it that the pretty flowers pull up so easily and the weeds fight so hard to stay in the ground? And why do maple seeds that fall from the trees into the garden grow into hardy little seedlings but when you plant them with the intention of growing a tree, they die so easily?

Another quandary is this, why does dirt imbed itself so deeply under our fingernails, in spite of wearing gardening gloves? My hands look shameful, but hard work has to count for something.

While I gardened my way through the long weekend, I pondered the correlation between battling with the weeds and the battles we fight daily with ourselves. It’s always harder to stifle our bad thoughts, bad qualities and habits than it is to hold on to our best qualities that are sometimes so frail.

So I guess we learn a lot as we dig through are flower beds. It’s like digging through life’s many layers. We pick through the junk while trying to hold on to the good stuff. As for me, I’m ready for a manicure.

Deb Drinkwalter is a Lockport resident. Her column appears every Sunday. Send comments to d.drinkwalter@yahoo.com.

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