Most mothers instil in their daughters a love for cooking, or for sewing a fine seam, embroidery perhaps, reading maybe. Well my Mom was different, bless her heart, she showed me the joy of weeding !
Yes, you heard right ...weeding... you know ..... those weeds in the garden.
Mom would sit for hours on the lawn extricating those minute invasive blue weeds, with a screwdriver to make sure she got the whole root.
Or she would stand, stiff legged, bent at the waist, pulling dandelions or khaki weed, or whatever delectable little monster caught her eagle eye.
Weeding is probably the most euphoric of all tasks, so satisfying, so rewarding... try it... of course one must always get the whole root, thats the name of the game !!
Those horrid paper thorn weeds, before the thorns grow of course, have that deliciously long tap root that can be eased out of the ground so delightfully that one can even get shivers down the spine !! Those tap roots can get to be a foot long, one has the sensation that a dentist gets possibly when extracting a tooth !!
A broken root of course is a sin, cos that little nasty weed will rear its ugly head again before you can blink.
The best time to weed is right after the rain when the ground is soft and the earth smells rich and inviting. A screwdriver is your best weeding tool, (I have to to hide the fact from HeHoo Must Be Obeyed Instantly, that I am using his screwdrivers to weed !!)
My gardener knows to leave my weeds alone !! He knows to leave them to me and sometimes if I am too busy during the rainy season to get into the garden, I can find weeds that come up to my kneecaps standing tall and arrogant just waiting to be plucked !!
Of course weeding in Sweden is equally as pleasurable.
Always green, always verdant in the summer but the probablility is, and I quote
'Summer is considered the most precious and beautiful week in Sweden' !!
Weeding is possible only in that small glorious window of summer, and the weeds, trust me 'make hay while the sun shines!!' There are some interesting fellows here, but no visit to the plant shop will help for weed killer, as the Swedes are very particular about having no nasty pesticides allowed!!
The best thing to do is to mow the darn things and then wait for the snow to cover them!! However not all Swedes do this, many lawns here will rival any bowling green!!
Summer in Sweden is heavenly, most people take full advantage of the sunshine and every patio, every porch is festooned in glorious colour. The wild flowers are abundant and the verges are seldom mowed as they present a fabulous show. The trees too have an abundance of blossom, and the hedges are full of edible berries. Swedes love to take advantage of the natural forest gifts and a lot of care is taken to make sure one plans a family outing to harvest the plentiful blackberries, lingonberries and also the wild edible mushrooms or Kantarella.
Cheers, this weed's for you Mom !!