pulling weeds

[snoops]

I am on a mission to get rid of the dandelions in my back yard. Spent two days now pulling the huge monsters. I did the front yard about 6 weeks ago and they have really stayed away. So I thought well lets just do the back too although I back onto a green space that is inundated with them so unlike the front it may be a losing battle. I didn't want to poison them but I wondered what anyone thought about the karmic value of killing weeds. As I was coming in I thought it is good for you to play in the dirt, garden be close to the earth to share its energy but I was killing things, not to eat either just to kill. Amy thoughts.

[WestVirginiaRaw]

Dandelions are good eats.

[snoops]

I know but these were old and sad looking and actually I don't love dandelion greens that much!!!

What about my question - anyone - I'm serious - am I getting the goodness of the earth even though I am killing things just because??

[Revvell]

You kill things every day without ever knowing it. All the food you eat, you have to kill and, if you're like me, you don't eat all you purchase and have to throw much of it away or compost it.

I weed my garden and yard and turn much (not all) of it into compost so, it goes back into the earth, although, I have to say, I really don't think that much about it.

As you said, they were old and sad. Everything has its day... then, its night.

[snoops]

ya OK - I guess if you compost it all returns to the earth - dust to dust and all. I don't compost at the moment and I just thought as I was walking in that all those weeds in a plastic bag was wrong. Having a strange day I guess.:o

[sport]

I felt like that when the first couple of thistles appeared in my new lawn. They were so pretty and perfectly formed that I asked myself why we decided that just because we did not plant a particular plant that it did not deserve to live.
I decided to save them from execution and appreciate them.
That did not last too long and when I finally decided that they had to go they were so big and so difficult to remove that I said that from now on I would close my "saving the weeds" branch of gardening.

[snoops]

LOL:D Thanks - I'm off to finish the job:p

[joya]

I hear where you're coming from. This is the first year I've had my own yard and garden... and I totally have felt the same way regarding pulling weeds. Now, however, I love it... it's therapeutic in some weird way to pluck 'em out.

Pulling weeds by hand is much much better than spraying your entire yard with chemicals. Also, if you are gardening, there is a higher purpose to the weeding (as in food production) and so it's more of being a "steward of the land" rather than a destroyer... if that makes sense.

[streetsurfer]

When pulling dandelions you need to get all of the root, or as much as possible. If you break any substantial portions off underground, they are so hearty they will regrow from it. You would see these come back up in the fall or even next spring. As a testament to this, you can chop up a dandelion root into several pieces and replant them and the individual pieces stand a good chance of regrowing. Weeding the tooth of the lion is better accomplished after ground softening rains. Use a long weeder and dig deep down from two or three sides first to loosen the soil, then pull the weed out gently as you pry into the loosened soil with your weeding tool.