I am new to gardening. I have been trying to get a decent lawn around the house by focusing on caring for the lawn, as also pull out all the weeds from it. Sad to see that I have not been successful so far. Our neighbours are witness to my efforts. One day one of our neighbours remarked to me that it is a futile exercise, "You pull out one and ten more will take their place". It does seem so. My efforts are showing results at a very slow pace with the weeds; the lawn however refuses to show the same results as the weeds, even though I take good care of it, I believe.
With two months of hard work under my belt, I can now identify some of the reasons for why the weeds grow faster, grow abundantly, and are difficult to eliminate. I noticed the following: -
- Every time I pull out a weed, I find a number of earthworms wrapped around the soil around its roots. Weeds create their own eco-system in which they can thrive.
- The persistent weeds have a tap root that digs deep down into the soil, and thus has access to better water and nutrition when compared to the grass.
- Weeds believe in networking. One weed will assist multiple weeds to grow in the area, through over and underground networking.
- Weed roots are fragile. The root breaks away when you try to pull it out from above the soil; the portion of the root under the soil regenerates once again in a few days.
- Certain weeds twist their stems in such a manner that it is difficult to identify the root location by looking at the stem.
- Weeds flower very quickly and attract all the pollinators to produce seed at the earliest. Most of these seeds are light weight and can be carried by the wind, spreading them far and wide.
Image: Dandelion seeds ready for dispersal
One day I consulted the other neighbour, who has a beautiful lawn, to give me some tips on how to get our lawn in shape. He told me that it is a lot of hard work. You have to fertilise it, water it and use pesticides to rid the lawn of pests. When I asked him about weeds, he mentioned that a good healthy lawn will ensure no space for weeds to grow or thrive and the effort required to maintain the lawn weed free comes down drastically.
Isn't all this so close to our lives. Bad habits, like weeds, are so difficult to weed out; bad habits develop eco-systems to thrive; network quickly to keep one entangled; are easy to get into and difficult to give up; they seem impossible to give up. So are we doomed?
Good company, like a healthy lawn, can help one keep one relatively free of bad habits, which are akin to weeds. No wonder our religions stress so much on 'satsang' or good company.
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