Looking on the Bright Side

"A man of words and not of deeds,Is like a garden full of weeds." - Benjamin Franklin

That statement by old Benjamin is pretty convicting.  How many times do we say, "I'll pray for you," and then we forget?  How many times, although our words and intentions might be good, we just don't follow through with actions?  Sadly, I have to admit that I am guilty of that.  Sometimes my life is like a garden full of weeds.

A garden full of weeds is not a good thing - neither figurative weeds or literal ones. The day before yesterday, I was bending over in the garden pulling weeds, mainly nutsedge or coco-grass.  It's not a fun job, but one that must be done.  In a few days I'll show you a technique that I employ that helps make weeding a thing of the past, but the downside to that method is that your vegetable plants must be at least 4 or 5 inches tall.  Some of my yellow squash and zucchini aren't quite that tall yet, so there I was, pulling weeds and trying to make sure that I pulled them up by the roots.

I was throwing the weeds over the fence and a group of hens were gobbling down the tender young leaves of the weeds.  Hens look forward to my weeds.  They thing weeds are a good thing.  I was about to pull a particularly healthy 'weed,' but then I stopped when I realized what it was.  Do you know what type of plant this is in the photo that follows?

Sweet Potato

That is a young sweet potato plant!  Notice the thick, heart-shaped leaves.  This is definitely NOT a weed, but it comes up year after year in the garden.  Actually many of them do.  Years ago we composted the remains of a Beauregard Sweet Potato in the garden and each year offspring from that original plant comes up in the garden providing us with bushels of delicious sweet potatoes that we normally harvest in the September - October time frame.

This sweet potato plant (I think they are called 'slips'), and three others like it that I spotted in the garden will send out numerous vines that run along the ground.  In various locations, they'll send down roots.  Those roots will become the tubers, or sweet potatoes that we all enjoy.  Many times I lament the numerous weeds that grow up year after year, but looking on the bright side, there are other things that pop up in the garden on their own that aren't weeds - they're good things to eat.

Here are a couple of other examples I saw just today:

First we have this strange looking plant with thick leaves and a purplish-stem coming up by the bunches.  Know what it is?

Purple-colored stems

It is Malabar spinach.  I diligently worked to save lots of seed last year to replant this year.  Well, I really didn't need to.  The Malabar spinach re-seeded itself.  I stood in the garden and snapped off the tender leaves, snacking on them while I worked.

Tender young leaves of the Malabar spinach

 Here is one of two seedlings that has come up on its own so far.  The leaves of this herb will probably be very recognizable to you.  Know what it is?

It is the  Genovese Basil.  I have 12 basil plants that are about an inch tall that I am growing in seed pots that I started from basil seed that I saved from last year.  I have lots of basil seed saved.  We make quarts and quarts of basil pesto.  I should have known better than to plant the seeds, knowing that they come up volunteer every year.  But you cannot always be sure.  Normally cilantro comes up volunteer each winter, so I didn't plant any from seed.  To our dismay, none came up this year for the first time ever.  I'm assuming it was due to the fact that I had mulched so thick with hay, that it crowded out the cilantro.

If I'm looking at the glass half empty, I've got to say that the weeds that come up each year cause me a lot of work and frustration.  Looking on the bright side, we do have things that come up each year that we get to eat, that require no planting or tending to.  All you gotta do is harvest and eat.  I'm always up to that task.