 |
| John Paul II rose. |
Matthew 13:24-30
King James Version (KJV)
24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
When our helper was weeding with me, he began complaining. I said, "If it were not for weeds, everyone would be a gardener."
My neighbor on the corner, who can landscape a yard in a few days, let his rose beds go to crabgrass, and those weeds now surround his bushes, an odd effect when the yard was perfect. If he had started with newspapers below the wood mulch, the crabgrass would not have had a chance to roar into action in August. My sunny garden is like that, with tomatoes and sunflowers growing and thriving in the midst of crabgrass. I made the same mistake in my rush to plant, but the area will be papered or covered with straw bales next spring.
Hardly any weeds grow in the rose garden because we began with newspapers surrounding the newly planted bare root plants. Then we put a thick layer of mulch over the newspaper, close up to the roses. Witchgrass tries to come up and arc over into new plants in the mulch. I can eliminate most of them on top. But if I yank up the witchgrass from below, the mulch and newspapers move around, allowing even more weeds to be warmed and energized by the sun.
 |
| Goosefoot is a delicious green and beneficial weed. The plant is quite nutritious. |
Robust weeds are a sign of good soil. That is an old gardener's story, about a blind man choosing to plant where the thorns are strong enough for his son to use to tie up the horse. One of my favorite books is Weeds - Guardians of the Soil. It sells for almost $400 used.
Everyone calm down and don't blink. Weeds are God's method of keeping soil in place and improving it over time. My favorites are the ones with deep taproots, because they open up the soil and shed their leaves to feed the soil. The plant growing in the sidewalk, which I suspected was an unusual milkweed, was instead a pigweed.
Pigweed has distinctive red berries. I visited the one growing in the sidewalk a block away, where it was only knee-high. I pinched a berry and bright red juice coated my finger. The leaves are edible and nutritious, but I prefer lamb's quarters (aka goosefoot). If you cannot identify goosefoot, you should stay indoors and read more posts about gardening.
 |
| Red-root pigweed is hardy in dry weather, easy to harvest. |
The taproots of pigweed and goosefoot mean they survive drought easily and harvest for compost quickly.
Crabgrass seed is in the soil everywhere, so control comes from mulching, not from poisoning the soil with pre-emergents. Shade is the best pre-emergent, and that shade comes from newsprint and
mulch.
 |
| Puncture-vine flowers warn the desert gardener that seeds are on the way. |
 |
| Puncture-vine seeds are tough, pointed, and painful. |
In the desert valley of Phoenix, puncture-vine covered the soil when no one took care of their yards. I took boxes of it away when I moved in. Later I put all the uprooted plants behind the sunflowers, where they rotted into the soil without taking root. No sun - no growth. Their seeds traveled well by embedding themselves in paws, feet, fur, and shoes. Removing a large plant meant showering the soil with seeds that let go, as if to carry on the next generation. The alternative to something like puncture-vine is wind and water erosion, eventually no usable soil.
When the fall season is done I will have wheelbarrows of vines to put in the compost. The fence garden, which has some weeds, will be prepared in the spring with newspapers and mulch or with mulch alone in some cases. Asparagus is a traditional fence plant, since it is spread from birds sitting on fences and - planting - asparagus, to put it delicately.
In congregations and denominations, the Gospel attracts weeds. Billy Graham once told an argument that his rallies always attracted cults that posted leaflets on all the cars parked at the stadium they were using. The cults found it worthwhile to plant on newly tilled soil.
In any given situation, false teachers arise to take advantage of the others. The first remedy is to deny them the chance to germinate by teaching sound doctrine. When the congregation is well prepared, they have the Scriptural tools to resist and defeat false doctrine.
I have found that false teachers in the congregation expose themselves soon enough. For those burdened by synodical drones, the disturbed members of a congregation are the natural allies of destructive and shameless synodical leaders.
WELS leaders believe they must rip out any pastor or member who dares to challenge their dogma or their financial shenanigans. At the rate the sect is going, they will have 1,000 members who never say anything or think on their own. Kinda like the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic).
