Chickweed

I could grow old pulling chickweed. It’s everywhere. In the beds, in the grass, in the rocks, even where I didn’t know I had soil. The best thing about chickweed? “common chickweed can reroot from stem nodes in moist areas.” Great, so if I pull a clump out and a small piece flies away it will re-root. Urg.

90% of what I found online tells me to use something extremely toxic. Here, I started this blog because of my guilt over Round Up, which seems pretty benign compared to Weed-B-Gon. Alas, there is another remedy that my garden mentor suggested last year: a flame weeder. Yes, indeed, this is like a blowtorch and especially recommended for rocky areas. Apparently it doesn’t burn the plant to death, it causes a chemical reaction inside which makes it die. Die, chickweed, die!

No discussion of the death of chickweed goes without the few but whiney chickweed advocates who espouse its health benefits. “Natural anti-inflammatory!” “Makes great pesto!” “Fights cancer!” If they’re so into chickweed, why don’t they come over and clean me out? Perhaps I should post on craigslist: “Free chickweed. U-pick.”