Low-Maintenance Garden

(Editor's note - I tried a new photography technique in not blocking the sun on the Virgen as I took the picture. I'm not sure I like it. My partner says it looks more moody with the shadows. We'll see)

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gently floating over a variety of greens, my Virgen today does not look like something out of the Tucson June desert - but, then, neither does my garden. I wrote at length earlier this spring about my attempts to make green, edible, thornless things grow in the desert as a guest on my sister's blog, so rather than revisit that tome here, I'll simply direct you to her blog - which is great and offers lots of interesting environmental information:http://theclothesline-cathy.blogspot.com/

Today, I'm here to talk about the conundrum around the weeds that are growing in my garden patch. As they first shot up between my spinach and tomatoes, I didn't think they were what they appeared to be because I knew that particular weed didn't exist here in southern Arizona. As the leaves broadened though, I ran out of native choices for what had joined the relatively easy living environment of my garden for a free ride to genetic replication. This morning as I watered, I was left with no room to doubt what the mystery plant exploding between my spinach was.

I had dandelions - three or four plants, to be exact. I thought I recognized the leaves from my Colorado childhood, but knew that there were no dandelion seeds blowing in our hot, dry winds, so dismissed the idea until this morning when the undeniable yellow flower open in all its sun-soaking glory. All I can assume is that they were either somehow in the bale of straw I bought to cover my dirt as mulch and ease the evaporation process (absolutely essential if one is trying to grow non-succulents here) or they were in the potting soil I used to enhance the dry, barren, Valley Fever Virus laden soil in my yard.

What I do know is now I'm faced with the decision of whether to pull them as weeds or grow and harvest them as salad greens. I didn't intentionally plant them, which somehow is making me think of them more as weeds - even though it would be the same plant if I had intentionally planted them - or the same green that I occasionally buy from the store for more money than any should pay to eat a weed.

Because they worked their own way in between the plants I did put in the soil, they're making the whole scene a bit crowded. My spinach is doing beautifully and I've been converting it to lunchtime salads all week. I'd hate for it to suffer because of this weed, but also know that dandelion can add a nice level to a salad.

Perhaps there's something here for me about random goodness popping up beyond the scope of my expectations. Perhaps there's something here for me about maintaining my vision and not letting deceptively tasty weeds corrupt that vision.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps.