Midsummersgarden, that almost strikes me like some form of poetry. I REALLY appreciate your sentiments. I have a bit more garden and fight with Bermuda grass. But it is, indeed, a satisfying thing to go out there and work; especially since I do see a change for the better every year.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Midsummersgarden, it is so nice to hear someone else actually enjoys weeding! I've been made fun of because I don't mind going out and having a weeding session. Satisfying, isn't it? And it's a good time to check on the progress of your plants, note the need to plant more or less of something, or see a seedling that can be moved and become a big healthy plant on its own.
George is right--you have discovered the poetry in weeding!

So right: "dailyness".

What makes it so enjoyable not just that the mind likes daily habit but because the weeds don't get the upper hand. My remote garden where I visit perhaps twice a week during peak weed-season though I still much enjoy the expression of nature the rampant weeds are rather a chore. Also in the home garden of course I do the weeding early and late, when it's cool and enjoyable, whereas the other one I do whenever I happen to be passing by which might be in the middle of a blazing June day, for example.

But that also has it's zen, one simply plays a different game, this is where we get mighty hot and refuse to quit, sweat and dust make that peculiar mud up to the elbows, so cooling later on the ride home with tired arm in car-window, probably a bit like the fatigued hoer on his walk home from the cotton-field.....

Used to have a weed problem......until last year when I started using Ruth Stout's year-round mulching system. NO more weeding going on at this garden.

Yep, I really appreciate people who do physical labor on long-term projects. I knew a guy who built a very long retaining wall on his property, and it took him three years! I was astonished he kept at it so long, since he was otherwise very busy. In my sunset years, I prefer Ruth Stout's deep mulching system. When there are no weeds to worry about, I am freed up to care for my plants or read or surf the web or carry on with a few other projects!

Midsummersgarden, You bring back fond memories of my previous garden with the "daily" routine. It was quite therapeutic to be out tending the herb garden every day. So much easier to keep up with weeds. Currently, I'm somewhere in the middle of establishing a mulched, weed-free garden and having a plentiful supply of back-breaking weeds, the kind you have to dig up. Since part of my garden area is still in the process of being cleared by hand, and the other part contains lasagna beds, my Saturdays are often spent wrestling with the nasty things. While I don't mind the physical exercise, I know if I could get out there every day it would make the task easier and more pleasurable.
One day. . . :)

For a long time, I was just frustrated. I'd go out and survey the area, and just think, that's it, I can't do this. These weeds will win this battle no matter what I do.

But I started trying to retrain my mind to think in increments. What would happen; I told myself, if I just came out every day and did a little bit? Maybe just one small section at a time? Who said I have to come out here and do the entire thing at once?

Before I knew it, there were less and less weeds showing up each day I went out there.

But it isn't just that, its the ownership of the land. The ownership of your garden. Just throwing a weed barrier on it or spraying roundup on it and leaving it isn't the same as putting in time with the hoe and the hands in the soil. Put in time, and that garden is yours.

beautiful thread midsummer.

we so easily distance ourselves from the ancient rhythms~it's soul satisfyingly good to reconnect.

I have the same Bermuda grass as well as other week issues but I don't mind weeding. My garden is more weedy this year because of my lung cancer but all things considered, it looks pretty darn good. I do need to get out there and get busy...but the other day I shared a picture of my cabbage and I was at first embarrassed because you could see some weeds and then I thought...what the heck...I have beautiful cabbages and broccoli and I have lung cancer and I'm 70 years old...I dare someone to say something...haha so I proudly posted the pictures..Weeding is a peaceful undertaking for me...

It's like the Grand Canyon. Just look what a little water accomplished over time.

I don't mind spot weeding, but I kick myself every time i go out and there's grass root in my soil thick like straw, and its all starting to grow :)

Mostly I just hate it because it KILLS my lower back. Something about bending over the hoe, its pretty agonizing in 10 minutes.

Probably I need to do my pilates.

I enjoy weeding too, which is good because my yard is big enough there are always weeds somewhere... My job is very cerebral, so it's wonderful to come home and only have to thing about "good - leave, bad - pull..." And then when I'm done my plants are happy and the garden looks great.

I'm like you. I used to be a half-ass gardener, now I love going out every morning and checking on everything, pulling the weeds, picking off the aphids, it's very therapeutic.

Weeding is like hand washing dishes...you can wash a couple a day for a few minutes or spend a long time doing it all at once.

Of course weed suppression like thick mulch helps spread all that out for both the lazy and the vigilant.

I'm having a terrible time with GRASS. There is tons of grass propping up my beds.. I think the topsoil I used was contaminated with grass seed. Grass would have to be the worst becuase there like little hairs x 1 million, you can pull them all day and accomplish nothing :-/

To me weeding is both mental and physical practice.
I do not hate the weeds so they don't get into my nerves.
But then I see it as a challenge. As Hemmingway said in his novel "Old Man And The SAea" to the fish:
YOU ARE MY BROTHER BUT I HAV TO KILL YOU (Not exact quote)

To me weeding is a time of getting rid of the stress like that static electric charge, as friend has put it. When you touch and make contact with the soil that stress goes into the ground, little by little. And touching the soil with bare hands, is making connection with what we come from and we shall go back to it.

My priority in weeding has to do with the plant size and also weed size. So my herbs garden, for example, is almost kept weed free. But in lettuce and onion patches, I let the smaller weed keep the company, after my plants are established.
I never have a deadline to do weeding, it has to come naturally. I do it all the time, little bit at a time.

HAPPY WEEDING FOLKS