The dreaded hedge parsley, member of the carrot family. The internet says that its seeds are a good source of protein! Nevertheless, I will not be harvesting them for my morning smoothies.
It rained this week and the temperature dropped enough to set off my car’s tire pressure warning light. Thankfully, I remembered that sometimes a sudden drop in temperature will affect that gauge, which turned out to be the case, since the light went off when the temperature rose again.
It was also a week when I finally had time to venture out to my favorite plant stores: the Peaceful Valley nursery in Grass Valley, the Ace Hardware there, and finally Grocery Outlet. I bought zinnias, a bee balm, cucumbers, eggplants, and different types of tomatoes. I found another six pack of snapdragons and cosmos, two basil plants, and one salvia, a perennial that will hopefully survive if I place rocks around it to guard it against the chickens’ scratching. They don’t mean to tear up my new plants, but somehow they do. Still need to get a zucchini.
Plant buying makes me happy. I even had time on Memorial Day to get a few planted. Except when I wandered into the yard, shovel in hand, I realized that I could not start planting immediately—because of the weeds! Sure, there are always going to be weeds in my yard, but the ones I hate most are the evil Velcro weeds, otherwise known as hedge parsley. There were so many! Before I could plant, I dragged out a garbage can and basically filled it.
I have been gardening and working my little piece of land for more than a decade. I used to hope that someday I would get to the end of the hedge parsley. Alas. The hedge parsley flourishes. It is a clever plant, part of the carrot family, and loves to cozy up to my California poppies. Sometimes, I accidentally yank out a poppy when I’m aiming for the hedge parsley. I think unkind thoughts when that happens.
Maybe it’s time to accept the fact that weeds and especially hedge parsley will always be with me. It might never be vanquished in my lifetime (I confess that a small part of me is still hoping!), but in the meantime, I do what I can.
Do what you can.
That’s a good motto to adopt for gardening and life in general.
So what can I do? I can pull weeds and fill trash cans with them and also realize that I will find more weeds tomorrow. I can lean into the truth that I am not a failure when I go outside with my shovel and bags of fertilizer and new plants and realize that I have weeding to do before they can even go in the ground. It’s part of the process. Weeds are part of life.
It was a week of weeding and beautiful, cooling rain and time at the plant stores. I got a few plants in the ground and said thank you for the rain that is caring for the ones that are still in their pots. I filled a trash can with weeds. It’s time to turn the sprinklers back on, because the weather is set to warm again, up to the eighties soon. I’m hoping to get the rest of my plants in the ground soon, and I’m grateful that I have at least one more empty trash can to drag along with me, filling it with weeds I discover along my way. I remember that all I need to do today is what I can do. Somehow, that will be enough.
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