b a t t l e c a t . n e t

I suppose that by obsessively weeding I am procrastinating something. It’s true that I haven’t lodged my tax return from last financial year, and there are many other things I should be doing. Though weeding, and getting the garden growing productively are things that need to be done too, but probably not just right now.

There’s something so meditative about weeding. You get to focus on a task over and over again, searching for things which shouldn’t be where they are, isolating their stems from the good plants, pulling them out of the ground, shaking the dirt off and adding them to a rapidly increasing pile. It’s physically demanding work, so you get exercise and there’s that pleasant feeling of destroying something for a purpose.

Soursobs and buffalo grass. They were my obsession last week. But today as I weeded near the broadbeans, I decided it was time to tackle the aloe ciliaris which had taken over a nearby tree.

Weeding is chilling me out and it’s giving me a new found respect for the plants I am trying to destroy.

This climbing aloe is such a very clever plant. It primarily spreads by sending out runners. But it doesn’t just send out runners, it also propagates through stem cuttings, and one of the features of the aloe ciliaris is its segmented stem. So, as I pulled at stems that had woven their way through the tree , the segments and leaves fell apart, allowing plenty of opportunities for new plants to grow. The very act of removing the plant could give it more opportunity to spread!

Oh, and ivy. It spreads in a similar way, the leaves will come off as you pull it from the ground or walls, and you can’t add it to a compost pile straight away it as it will magically grow from your compost!

It turns out that the solution is to place such tough plants into black plastic bags, and to leave them in a sunny area area until the heat kills the plants and they properly begin rot, and then months later, add them to a compost pile.

So, more procrastination – it’s off to the store to buy weed killing plastic bags and some food for the ANZAC Day breakfast.