I LOVE WEED

No, I am not talking about Marijuana; I am talking about dandelions and wood violets. I think those dazzling dandelions are like dainty sunbursts- they are star flowers, not weeds.

People often say, weeds are just misplaced flowers.... well, that doesn’t mean we have to embrace all of them and plant a garden of weeds instead of raspberries! All weeds are not as beneficial as dandelions. We imported water hyacinths into Bangladesh and India after we were blinded by their beauty- however, this leads to all our water bodies becoming clogged up! Likewise in the USA, garlic mustards are invasive plants.  Wherever they spread, they smother the native plants. But I have seen environmentally conscious people pulling up garlic mustard plants one by one from the soil by hand; they do not use any weed killer.

Talking about my love of weed in both senses of the word, I remember a story. It was a spring morning much like today. We had just bought a new house in the country. I found my front garden full of little leaves of Thankuni Pata, also known as Indian pennywort, or Centella Asiatica. These medicinal herbs have been widely used in Bangladesh and India for thousands of years as folk remedies to treat wounds, diarrhea, fevers, and various skin conditions. Before using the plants, a brilliant idea clicked into my over-fertilized brain. I decided to move them to my lovingly nurtured vegetable patch. I read in a book that early morning is the best time to transplant any plant. So, I put an alarm for four-thirty in the morning. In the summertime, the sun rises up by then in the winter wonderland we call Wisconsin. I got up early at the sound of the alarm and while continuing to rub my eyes I went to the garden to transplant all the plants one by one with lots of care. After a few days, seeing my luxurious patch full of overgrown Thankuni Pata, my neighbor said, “Oh ho, so many weeds have grown in your vegetable patch! These Creeping Charlies spread so quickly!” I had learned more about my favorite Wisconsin weed, but could not tell her about my inspired plan- ‘get up at four-thirty in the morning to transplant!’ Twenty-two years have gone by. In that time, I have learned that in life, we often treasure all the people and belongings that others simply view as the unwanted weed.

Each spring, when the snow melts and the brittle grass turns emerald green, I dream of a place where dandelions are not weeds. But I find my neighbors starting a competition – whose grass is greener on the other side.

I close my favorite book, Silent Spring, yet another time and step outside. Almost for nine months, I could not go out into the garden to touch the dewdrops on the grass with my bare feet – I had to wear Ugg boots, leather gloves, a down coat, and a woolen scarf as a second skin. Snow blanketed my garden, I could not smell the lemon flowers, and my rainbows were white.

To me ‘Silent Spring’ always reads like a horror story. Each time I read it, the reaction is the same – I cannot breathe. Rachel Carson, the author of the book, writes about the harms of DDT, and her book plays a large role in the movement that rises in the US to ban the chemical. In the past, we used to spray DDT onto the harvest fields, which then circulated and entered the human body through the food chain, becoming a permanent part of the bloodstream. The havoc wrecked by DDT is not washed away by rain-water. Once DDT is sprayed on a crop, it continues to kill insects months after application. It kills not only the insects the farmer wants to kill but all insects, including those that are seen as beneficial. Through her book, Carson conveys the message that DDT and all other pesticides have brought unaltered and irreplaceable harm to mankind and animals alike. In the chapter ‘fable for tomorrow’, she describes a town where all the birds have forgotten how to fly, the fish have forgotten how to swim, the flowers have forgotten how to blossom, and the children have forgotten how to sing. It became a dreadful silent spring. Through the rampant use of chemicals, humans have laid down their own death trap. DDT has been linked to cancer, and although it has been banned, we still use pesticides that pose a danger to our own health. Roundup and Atrazine are two chemicals we continue to use today, which have been linked to cancer, reduced survival of fetuses, and birth defects.

While outside, I stumble upon a sign, “Pesticide application, stay off the grass.” I see a picture of children, adults, and dogs with a red-colored cross sign to tell them to stay off the lawn. Now for at least three days, children should not roll on that grass, and should not blow silver-colored dandelion heads like helicopters in the wind.

It is the season for those ‘we love green’ type of companies’ bountiful business. It is thirty dollars an hour – pretty cheap! They will mow the lawn, apply pesticides to the grass, and uproot three generations of dandelions.

THESE ARE WEEDS!  It is the age of manicure, pedicure, and grass cure!

Sad, perplexed, disturbed, and heartbroken like I am in all my other springs, I leave my neighborhood’s yards and gardens, and go home. In my head, Rachel Carson’s lines still continue to echo, “There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings…Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death…The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire... In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams. No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the birth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.”