I made so many new friends at the Garden Writers’ conference that I think it’s time to explain the logo I use. I call him “Crabby,” and, yes, it’s crabgrass. But why would a lifelong gardener choose to be identified with an unattractive nuisance that has almost no redeeming value? Aren’t gardeners and weeds supposed to be mortal enemies?
Actually, I’ve come to respect crabgrass. It’s persistent, resilient, and absolutely indomitable. Sure, you can drown it in poison, but wait a year or two and it’ll be back, bigger and badder than ever, probably with a new genetic resistance to your herbicide. You can’t win the war against crabgrass–you can only hold it at bay. Sooner or later you will give up, at which point it will happily take over.
Crabgrass, like most of the worst weeds in North America, was not native to this land, but it swept across the continent just like the colonists who brought it. The human invaders believed this world was theirs for the taking and came up with all sorts of complicated arguments to justify their actions. Crabgrass believed nothing and argued nothing–it just took over.
I’ve known people who despise crabgrass, but the blind rage of weed-haters seems silly to me. What’s the point of hating something you are absolutely powerless to control? Crabgrass, like so many other annoying life forms, is our comrade-in-arms during our brief sojourn on this planet, and I am immeasurably grateful for all the wonderful lessons it has taught me about perseverance, adaptability, and humility. From crabgrass I have learned the great power of Acceptance.
Mind you, I still pull crabgrass out of my garden on a regular basis, but no matter how much I remove, it’s always still there, waving its weedy little tendrils every time I walk by. Weed-haters might think it’s mocking my eradication efforts, but I prefer to think it’s just saying “Hi!”–showing me it has no hard feelings about my relentless uprootings. I like to think I’ve taught crabgrass a thing or two about Acceptance too.
I only wish all mortal enemies of this world could learn to live as harmoniously as crabgrass and me.
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