The Garden

I'm far from the first to use the process of weeding a garden as a metaphor. In fact, it's been used so many times that I had a hard time pinning down its origin. This seems a good time to reflect on gardening, and weeding. 


In mid-April the apple tree blooms in muted pinks and white. Bees buzz around from blossom to blossom. The warm California sun will spend the whole summer saturating the leaves with enough energy to transform the remnants of those blossoms into fruit so that by early autumn—if I can keep the squirrels away—we'll harvest just enough to make an apple crisp. 

What I have might not be enough to some to call a garden, but the collection of potted plants on the deck of my condo gives me the best of both worlds. I can enjoy nature and the process of helping things to grow in a way that's not nearly as labor intensive as maintaining an entire yard. It's no small part of the reason why I live in a condo.

The apple tree is a mainstay; we've had it since 2015 and it has produced fruit each year since 2017. I change up what I plant from year to year in other pots. I've been known to plant all manner of hot peppers: habanero, ghost, serrano, jalapeño. They tend to do well in this climate and historically have been grown here commercially. For similar reasons, I've planted strawberry bushes from time to time. And then there are any number of ornamental flowering plants and succulents.

Several times a year, I have to go into the pots' soil and do a bit of weeding. It's not that my little feelings are hurt by weeds. I'm not afraid of weeds. I'm not denying weeds their right to exist, nor am I deluding myself into believing that there aren't any weeds, or that my actions in some way can have any impact on the overall number of weeds in the world. My motivation for weeding isn't anything like this. I have a limited amount of time to spend on enjoying my garden, and I don't want it taken up by having to look at a bunch of weeds. I don't want weeds sucking the life out of the plants that I am trying to grow. It's my garden.

Those of us who are making adjustments to how we interact with social media probably know what I'm talking about.

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