Weeds & Flowers

About a month ago I started seeing little sprouts of weedy clovers popping up throughout my backyard. I picked a few of them that were growing around some timid broccolini I planted earlier - in hopes that my broccolini would somehow take off. This did not happen and the weeds, well they were not deterred. They multiplied exponentially overnight.

 As they began to carpet the once clear dirt plots throughout the yard I began to wonder what I could possibly to do stave them off, especially since I'm obligated to only use organic methods of gardening. When I told my landlady about the total clover infestation she was not a bit alarmed. Apparently this happens every year, and instead of fighting them I should let them take over, and then we'll plow them up in the spring.

But watching the weeds over take my chard, herbs, and struggling broccolini was too much. So the other day I went out to take matters in to my own hands. I spent several hours knee deep in weeds, pulling, raking, grooming. I filled an entire trash been full of this weedy yard waste. But even after all of that, my yard still looks overgrown. I barely made a dent in the overall infestation, and the weeds I did get out just grew back after the next day's rain. I'm starting to realize that I am going to have to come to terms with these weeds. They are not ideal - they are not even welcomed - but there are more of them than there are hours in the day. Being the idealist that I am, this is a tough concept for me to grasp. If only I could work harder... but to what end? So, instead of setting my sites on a totally clear yard this winter, I will focus my efforts on keeping certain plots clear, for my chard, herbs, and hopefully brocollini to flourish, and I'll leave the rest for future spring cleaning.

The paradox here is that where I come from, winter is a time for sleep, not growth. Wrestling with undergrowth in November is unheard of - and any unsightly weeds are quickly trounced by inches and inches of snow and layers of frost. But out here in Northern California, not only are the weeds flourishing, but flowers are blooming. Flowers from the garden at Thanksgiving? Unheard of, and yet here they are...

And it's not just flowers, the dark fig tree is still cranking out purple figs;

I have some luscious persimmons ripening;

And in a few weeks I'm about to have an orange harvest

Winter is just not the right name for this season. I'm going to have to come up with a new seasonal category.