For observant gardeners and introspective believers, there may be revelation in mullein and chicory.
Chicory
Photo: Portland Pet Stores
Peonies and daffodils, of course. Chicory, Queen Anne’s Lace, oh yes. Violets and clover, mm…probably. Dandelions, probably not. Nut grass, like hell!
You, too, likely have botanical prejudices. And where whole cultures agree on them, we have the term “weed.”
Consider Matthew 13: 24-30
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’”…
Here, you and I, the imagined owners, say, “Have at it, guys!”
But that’s where a gardening no-brainer becomes a mind-bender, known otherwise as a parable.
‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest….
A couple of Sundays ago, Rev. Doug Adkins of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Louisville, examined this passage and delivered a human flower project from the pulpit. With Rev. Doug’s permission, we quote liberally :
“This parable is only found in Matthew’s gospel. According to many biblical scholars … the Gospel was written from within the Church community of Antioch, toward the end of the first century (between 80 and 90)….
“The church at Antioch began as a church of Diaspora Jewish Christians, people who fled Jerusalem after the initial persecution there. Antioch was a large city for that time. So as an urban church, the congregation in Antioch reflected the ethnic diversity that is common in large cities….
“So the faith community in Antioch was struggling with religious diversity. Their base was shifting and they were experiencing numerical growth and the question they were struggling with was: “How are we to deal with people who initially seem identical to us, but over time are revealed as different from us in their expression of faith and their actions?” Or, to put it more bluntly: “It seems to us that some among us are as worthless as weeds, so How and When can we rid ourselves of them?””
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A botanical pause here: for it’s not Holy Jesus only who questions our penchant for despising and rooting out what we call weeds.
Here are three wise and provocative observations from our own time:
The first from Sue Smith-Heavenrich (yes, Heavenrich actually is her name): She was keen enough to note the beneficial effects that several wildflowers (a.k.a weeds) had on her vegetable patch. For backup, she cites the work Dr. Miguel Altieri who, “has been studying the ecological role of weeds in agricultural systems. ‘Agroecology”’ he calls it.” Altieri has documented “cropping systems in which the presence of weeds enhanced the biological control of pests.”
Human prejudice can’t undo the beneficial power of a dandelion.
Photo: DIY Garden Growing Hacks
Where weeds grew thickly near beans in Colombia, there were fewer leafhopper bugs, the beans’ most destructive pest. “Weedy undergrowth in apple orchards contributed to higher populations of parasitic wasps, which, in turn, helped control apple fruit pests.” With an “understory of ragweed, goldenrod, smartweed and lamb’s quarters in a New Jersey peach orchard” there were fewer oriental fruit moths.
This research and her own eyes have led Smith-Heavenrich to pause in her weeding, and look first. Are her vegetables thriving after all? If on down the line, her veggies get crowded out, she can change course and “sacrifice the wildflowers, turning their greenery into water-conserving mulch with the flick of a hoe-blade.” Fear not!
Another perspective comes from Andrea Locke, a weed aficionado. Listing her favorites, she asks a question that may bring Puritanical types up short: “These are mostly very tough plants that require almost no work on the part of the gardener. I wonder if this is one reason they fell out of favour?”
And Lisa Cotton, writing for Grow Appalachia gives us a subtler yet stronger argument for letting weeds be. Instead of pulling up chickweed and horsetail, she lets them inform her about current soil conditions. Brilliant!
We’ve excerpted her findings here, but check the full account to discover how to follow up on these various situations.
Listen To Your Weeds
1. Weeds that say your soil is soggy: dock, foxtail, horsetail, willows, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, oxeye daisy, rushes, sedges. …
2. Weeds that say your soil is compacted: chicory and bindweed…
3. Weeds that say that your soil is sour: dandelions, mullein, sorrel, stinging nettle, and wild pansy…
4. Weeds that say your soil is sweet: salad burnet, field peppergrass, campion, nodding thistle. ..
5. Weeds that say your soil is worn out: mullein, daisies, wild carrot (queen anne’s lace)…
6. Weeds that say your soil is rich: chickweed, henbit, lamb’s quarters. Redroo pigweed…
Who needs an extension agent?
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Rev. Doug’s sermon admonishes us, also, from reaching for the hoe of doctrine to attack the human henbit in our midst.
“I have witnessed plenty of things done – in the denomination of my childhood, and pretty much every Christian denomination- things done in the name of God that have served to destroy factions of the church. Crusades for purity trying to pull out the weeds. We say, “It’s about being faithful to the Bible.” Or,“It’s about correct theology.” But those are all smokescreens. In truth, it is about who’s in, and who’s out. Who do you not want to deal with, and what are you afraid of?
“In the beginning of the church it was: “Are you circumcised or uncircumcised?” When I was graduating from seminary, it was: “Do you believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible, or not?”
Priscilla Chandler’s arrangement of flowers and weeds stood beside the pulpit at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church July 19.
Photo: Bill Bishop
“Do we ordain women? Do we allow people of various sexual orientations to join the church, and, if so, do we allow them to have leadership roles? On and on and on… We do it over and over and over again and we claim it’s about objective truth, when it’s really about our subjective fear that we don’t trust God to be God and to sort it all out in the end.
“Which brings me to one other layer of interpretation of this parable: In our weak, broken human condition, the truth is that we live with both wheat and weeds growing within us. In the way we view ourselves; in our relations with other people; in our efforts to be faithful to God and to the people we love…
“…As our spiritual formation deepens, we realize that this mixture of weeds and wheat exists within us, just as it exists within the external circumstances of life. We don’t have the power to purge the weeds; only through growth in grace and love and reconciliation with God can we tell the difference and know what is the wheat that we need to feed, so that the weeds do not take over.”
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