Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

A. A. Milne

If pokeweed was a desirable crop we’d be rich. We must have pulled a hundred pounds of it alone over the weekend. Add in the velevetleaf, prickly lettuce, clover, yellow woodsorrel, dandelions, hairy crabgrass, and the veritable carpet of ground ivy that we pulled over the weekend and we’d be rich ten times over.

Our compost pile overfloweth.

But these plants aren’t growing to our benefit. Unfortunately they are the weeds that we are fighting back from our gardens. Primarily the Three Sisters garden. Todd jokingly referred to the weeds just the other day as the ugly fourth step-sister in our Three Sisters garden.

Of course calling them the ugly step-sister, or even simply weeds, is probably a bit harsh. After all, what is a weed but a plant growing in an undesired place? Several of them at least have beneficial uses, whether it be to wildlife or uses in medicinal folklore.

All in all the weeds are a minor inconvenience compared to the beauty, and forthcoming bounty, that the gardens provide. While we are approximately 3- to 4-weeks behind where we were with harvests at this time last year, we’ve no doubt that soon our counters and the farm stand will be overflowing with the produce from our gardens.

The sudden growth in weeds has been spurred on by recent rains. Rains which we hope are signalling the end of a prolonged drought. It was amazing to see that last week that nearly 99% of our county residents were experiencing impacts from the drought. But after a few long, sustained rains this week nearly all of the county is free from drought. While many areas remain abnormally dry, the forecast rain showers throughout this week will only help to bolster growth throughout the county and on our little farm.

Yes, we’d like a break from pulling the weeds. But the weeds are symbolic of the ending drought. That’s a relief that stands to benefit us all.

So let the rains continue to come. Let the drought break and the abundance of the garden become evident. We look forward to sharing our bounty with the neighborhood as we finally see relief from weeks of drought.

Our drought has been very localized. Not all of the country, or even all of our state, has been impacted quite as much as our home county. You can view the current US Drought Monitor here. What conditions have you seen in this growing year? Let us know in the comments below!

Take care, farm fam.