“Weeds”

I know I’ve talked about “weeds” before here. I feel that given the time of year, it’s relevant to bring it up again. What’s prompted this is seeing my neighbour, on her hands and knees, diligently scraping out the dandelions from the front wall next to the pavement.

She reassures me as I was backing out of my drive that she was, “only going to the edge here.” i.e. where my driveway starts… I didn’t really know what to say if I’m honest. Same as when she mentioned about “couch grass,” whatever that is, as she was trying to trowel it up from the bit between my drive and the path down the side of their house.

The number of years I’ve had the, “I’ll come and help you with your garden,” comments from my mum, and the snarky comments across the road about not filling my green bin, both of which used to wind me up something rotten. I’m on my own, I run my own businesses. Do you really, honestly think that pulling, “weeds” out of my property is a priority?

Well lockdown came courtesy of the pandemic, and I had chance to watch the wildlife who visited, stayed, and brought up a family in my “garden.”

This year, I’ve pulled up the weed fabric that “controls the weeds,” which I felt compelled to install when I first moved in. I was brought up to keep grass short, the garden trimmed and the weeds out.

I wish I had known then what I know now as I had a beautiful meadow in my garden. Still, I’m making up for lost time and have planted SO MANY wildflowers this year, and despite the cold April nights they’re starting to show themselves poking out of the ground.

Dandelions

I want to tell you specifically about dandelions as they have a special place in my heart.

My childhood sweetheart – Swifty BunBun – my English rabbit who I loved to the moon and back, was very fond of them. One of my happiest memories is watching Swifty munch his twitchy little nose from the stalk of the daffodil, all the way to the flower, which just disappeared in the blink of an eye. I remember hearing the tone of the tube of the stem changing as it got shorter and shorter as the flower got closer and closer to his munchy mouth. Weeds my arse.

They represent the sun as a beautiful cheerful yellow flower hailing Spring’s arrival. They represent the moon when they transform into “dandelion clocks.” The seeds as they blow away represent the stars.

They open to greet the sun, and tuck themselves away to sleep for the night.

Up until the 1800’s, people would pull up the grass to make way for them, how times have changed.

Every year, countries spend millions on pesticides to get rid of them so we can have neat lawns.

When you see the mainstream media adverts from the manufacturers, you could be forgiven that having dandelions is akin to being in a horror movie where you can’t kill the monster. Or worse still, they are mocking you!It’s time society took a long hard look at its ingrained opinions on, “gardens.”