Publication Date: Friday, June 17, 2005
Whacking weeds
Whacking weeds
(June 17, 2005) A way to clean up the yard and achieve inner peace
by Tai Khandaker
The struggle to reclaim a yard overrun by weeds is a private little war that many homeowners face. The labor involved in clearing a large plot or garden beset by those little pests can be physically exhausting, but when those same weeds end up sprouting right back up again weeks later the emotional toll can be even greater. One can end up feeling like all that hard work was done for nothing.
Students at Encinal School in Atherton faced that battle every Saturday afternoon this spring when they and parent volunteers gathered to upgrade and maintain the school's prized vegetable and butterfly garden. Dozens of delinquent weeds have reared their ugly heads from under the wooden dividers of the garden beds, threatening to siphon off water and overrun valuable soil space from the rows of wheat, peas and fava beans grown by the elementary students. It's been up to these second through fourth graders to keep up the fight to preserve their fledgling crops.
That's where Michael Hogan comes in. Resident gardening expert and fourth-grade parent, Hogan works in the field of habitat restoration for such non-profits as the Watershed Council for San Francisquito Creek as nursery manager for re-vegetation. He specializes in weeding large parcels of land for corporate clients. With 25 years of experience, he's developed his own technique to remove the insidious plants, and proclaims that the act of doing so can help individuals achieve inner peace.
The most crucial part of fighting weeds, according to Hogan, is keeping a healthy psychological balance. Persistence is the only way to effectively combat them. Most people, he claims, do not have the same stamina as the weed population, and will typically only go out once or twice a season to clear them. The weeds, however, work 24 hours a day.
"We have to know how to come back and finish the job. Strategies that I've adopted involve just prioritizing who has to come out of the ground first," he said. It's best to spread the job out over several sessions and focus on which species present the greatest threat for propagation at the time.
"You prioritize based on species and also based on what the space to be cleared is like," he said.
Of course it would be ideal to nip the growth in the bud before it gets out of hand. "It's very difficult for certain plants to survive in the presence of weeds," Hogan said, stressing the importance of preventative care. He claims it's vital that one not allow weeds to become established. It only takes a few of them to take root, and when they begin to spread their seeds, you begin dealing with a multiplying population rather than a few impudent upstarts.
Hogan encourages people to do their homework about the plants already in their garden to know which ones belong there and which don't. Often looks can be deceiving. "Many times people will mistake a weed for a native plant," he said, adding "a lot of weeds destroy the soil ecology for native plants and in effect poison the soil."
Hogan advises people to be thorough and to follow up on what they start. "Generally, no matter how good you are at pulling weeds you'll break off a few roots of a dandelion here, or the leaves will only come off a little grass and the root ball will be left in. Those kinds of weeds will come back right away. Not only will they come back, but they come back more aggressively, and they're actually angered at that point and they'll seed more quickly than plants that have been undisturbed."
With such a case, he recommends waiting a few weeks, preferably after it's rained again before re-pulling, so that all the agitated roots break the soil and make themselves visible.
"In that two-week period you also may have new seedlings. When something's a seedling it's exceedingly easy to beat back. You can just turn it with a shovel or in some cases just scrape it with a hoe. Seedlings are the easiest plants to combat. You want to get things when they're as small as possible. It's just a matter of going around and finding things that you've forgotten."
Hogan offers bits of advice for fighting weeds:
** Don't overlook weeds that grow in amongst another plants; they could get into the seed bank;
** Be careful with dandelions: if you pull and leave the root intact, it becomes huge and difficult to pull later on;
** With species such as Bermuda grass or oxalis, pulling can be detrimental because disturbing them by force only propagates their underground material.
"Sometimes Round-up is the way to go. You try not to use chemicals, and that's a whole other issue, but in reality it's less toxic than some of the things in your laundry detergent," he said.
Regardless of specific tactics, the more important issue with weeding is morale. Hogan sees an even greater benefit to the practice. Within everyone, there is the power of being able to bring something wild under control, and restore health to a garden and its soil. In a way that accomplishment can lead to a deeper fulfillment. Hogan tells stories of clients he's had who've suffered from terminal illness who have found weeding therapeutic.
"When they're pulling, the removal of each weed to them can represent the removal of a malignant cancer," he said.
Others, including himself, can practice religion while weeding, using each weed as a symbol of penance, and in so doing purify their souls along with their gardens.
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