Jul11

may all your weeds be wildflowers.

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imagine my surprise 

when coming home

noticing the landscapers

had mulched and manured and cleaned

my garden

but in doing so

had removed my garden vision

i’ve been nurturing for a while

a huge mix of wildflower seeds

a naturalized garden

most on the cusp of blooming

it was full and lush and green and tall with stems

so full of potential

 the surprise beauty of new flowers

yet to be discovered

 i’m sure they just saw weeds

 were trying to help me by ‘cleaning it up’ 

leaving only what they recognized as flowers

 i so appreciate all of their work

 it’s clear we don’t share the same vision.

 

 

—

“man is the only critter who feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds.”

~author unknown

81 responses »

  1. The difference between a weed and a flower is often in the eyes of the beholder. Similar to garden plants, weeds can produce colorful flowers and attract beneficial insects, like bees and butterflies, to the yard.

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  8. It’s awful when it happens, but it can happen to any one. A native plant demonstration garden at a local corporation was torn out by a crew told to “clean out the flower beds.” They sure did, and the woman who’d worked with it for months was verklempt.

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  20. My father always said: Meaning well is the opposite of good. In this case, the goodwill was there but… oh, well… Since I know about the healing effect of so many “weed” I leave it there too!

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  22. “Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.” ~ Joan Powers (Eeyores gloomy Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard)

    And now, the landscapers know. Happy to hear that some of them survived!

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  23. I was thinking about that this morning. I don’t dig out or poison dandelions. I have a wild sunflower taking advantage of my generosity. I was thinking how I’d learned they were weeds but how, to me, they are devices for attracting the bees that will pollinate Li Bai, Tu Fu, Li Ho and Bai Juyi — and Wang Wei if he ever blooms. The bees are my subcontractors and I pay them by growing wildflowers. I have a bed dedicated to them in the back yard and a salvia that’s out of control except to me and the bees.

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  24. My over-enthusiastic gardening attitude has put my husband in mortal fear of removing the wrong plant. He won’t even do the weed whacking in case he decapitates an unsuspecting blossom! I do find fences help identify my intention for unknowing visitors.

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  32. I’d have loved to be a fly on the shoulder of the man in charge of eradicating your wildflowers when you explained the situation. 😉 I can see you making yourself perfectly clear. Here’s one for the wildflowers and weeds. 😉

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  35. We’ve often driven by a field of amazing colors on our travels and I express appreciation. HUsband has said frequently “they’re just weeds”. I don’t know who decided a weed was a weed and not to be admired. But I’m a bit of a rebel and decide for myself. 🙂

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  36. I treated clover as weed for years until I planted two plum trees with early spring blossoms. The clover flowers were the only flowers when winter was not gone. The bees love the clover, I need the bees to pollinate the plum blossoms. Now clover is not weed any more.

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