Weeding as Meditation
An entry into our shared garden diary
This may be an unpopular opinion, but weeding is one of my favorite garden maintenance tasks.
As a child, weeding was one of the worst garden chores: monotonous, time-consuming, sometimes painful (I’m looking at you, thistles), and above all—boring. On top of this, weeding is a lot more difficult than it initially seems. You have to make sure you get every bit and piece of the plant’s root system, otherwise there’s a fairly high chance the weed will return (probably with a vengeance). This is exactly what I’m facing in my mint and comfrey battles. The comfrey, AKA the aforementioned “mysterious tubers” (not actually tubers, my bad), that I’ve been unearthing are a great example of this. Anytime the root of comfrey is cut, disturbed, or otherwise relocated in small pieces, it will form entirely new plants. All of these issues make weeding out to be the worst chore, right?
Wrong—at least in my book.
Weeding is the best way to get to know your garden: what kind of soil do you have? How long does it hold moisture? What kinds of weeds are coming up and what does that mean? The type of soil you have impacts the ease of pulling weeds. If you have a heavy clay soil, weeds are harder to remove the drier the soil is. As the soil becomes wetter, the weeds are more prone to sliding out. This is true for pretty much any soil, though some soils don’t hold very much water at all. Water tends to drain right out of sandy soils, but looser soils allow for heftier root crops like carrots and beets. All soils have their benefits! The best way to learn these benefits is to get your hands dirty by pulling weeds (and submit soil samples to your local extension offices).
Now, why do I, personally, love weeding? I treat it as a sort of meditation. In general, meditating allows one to achieve a state of calm and clarity as a result of focusing on a singular object, thought, or sensation. As someone who often gets lost in their own thoughts and struggles to find a way out, pulling weeds helps me to clear my mind and focus on the task at hand. It gives me a chance to relax while still feeling productive. It allows me to exercise deep care for my garden and myself. Tempting as it is to put my headphones on and listen to a podcast or NPR, I find value in focusing my attention entirely on pulling weeds. Not only does it help prevent me from making mistakes like accidentally uprooting my crops (sorry, lettuce seedlings), it allows me to appreciate the work I have done, the work I am doing, and the work I have yet to do.
The visible progress and instant gratification don’t hurt, either.
