Once the garden is planted and I’m impatiently watching for the first signs of desirable germination, I can start pulling as the grasses and clearly identifiable weeds start showing up. The weeds, like the plants, are very small, thus tweezer weeding. When it comes to grasses especially, if you get them when they are little it’s easier to get the whole root.

The toughest weed to deal with is this dainty, fragile, pretty weed. It adds kind of a nice contrasting texture in the cabbage row but it’s gotta go. I often think that it would make a beautiful ground cover if you could just keep it in it’s place. It’s difficult to pull because it breaks so easily, leaving the roots. Many weeds in North America were brought here with our ancestors as ornamental flowers. Because of the difference in climate, soil and insects, the plants were kept in check in Europe but have become a nuisance if not noxious here.

I will wait until the plants are established to cultivate as I pull. Carrots don’t get weeded for a month or more because they are so fragile when they are young. When the time comes to eliminate intruders in the carrot row, it’s legitimate to do a little thinning.

“But he said, Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.” – Matthew 13:29

You run into some people in life that are attractive and fun so you let them hang around even though they are not ‘productive’. The problem is, you can’t keep them in their place, they spread their attitude, they influence adults as well as children and they can eventually turn even family members against each other. It’s never to late to do some tweezer weeding in our lives, one ‘pretty, little weed’ at a time, start with the TV programs that show children running the home. Be aware of your children’s friends whose parents allow activities that you don’t. Do any of your friends have habits or particular behaviors that you have to consciously overlook? Examine your clergyman – does he teach the Bible or according to a doctrine?