Flowers vs. Weeds

 The time has come to reclaim the grass and weed infested flowerbeds of my front yard. They look ratty.

But I'm prudent and I want to do it right. Some of those weeds are tall, having established themselves fully.

There's an environmental impact to every change. Beetles, ants, worms, and the aforementioned weeds and grass all stand to lose their place or be uprooted in numbers too great to ignore.

This, for vanity.

Grass and weeds have pushed up through cracks in the pavement and my intention is to yank them out or poison them. No one will stop me. 

Shockingly, classes are not mandated as to how to put in a flowerbed while doing the least damage to the various creatures who will be hurt or disrupted: the worms that will be cut in half by the shovel, or the burrowing insects whose lairs will be opened to the birds and utterly laid waste, and the roots that will be severed from the flora they feed forever.

Further, sensitivity training is unavailable for the reality that after the flowerbeds are cleared of weeds and grass and after the lives of so many creatures that once inhabited the soil are ruined, flowers and other special class of plants will occupy what once been a thriving ecosystem. No doubt they'll arrive from a nursery or some other foreign place. Non native, or at least not aboriginal plants! Replacing the grass and weeds that actually came from the flowerbeds!

Why does no one regulate this?

After the flowerbeds flourish and are beautiful, traffic will be affected. Drivers will look, momentarily averting their attention. This alone should give pause, because in the distracted moment children will dart into the road for their ball and be crushed by the passing vehicle. Detractors will point out that the weed infestation would also draw attention, but to them I will not respond. Clearly they are weedists. They have their preference and they will always denigrate weeds. It's a hatred. They're haters.

The flowerbeds will flourish and their beauty will cause pedestrian travelers to divert from other destinations to see and smell the glory. Some may stop and pull a blossom to take home.

They become thieves in so doing and thereby the entire society is degraded. This will not happen if I leave the weeds. No one stops to pick your weed. No one stops to smell the weed. They just keep on going. Weeds do not get their due for the affect they have on lives by encouraging passers by to just keep on going.

Detractors will point out that a weed infested yard screams neglect and may invite burglary break in because of the belief that the homeowner is away. Weedists. Haters. Even if it is so.

In the end it has to be considered well before one spade of earth is cut from it's place. Does all the energy it will take to reclaim the yard and the carnage on existing inhabitants of that space outweigh the benefit to me? Me, one soul. My vanity. My personal desire to have an attractive yard. My obligation as a good neighbor to keep the blow weeds from seeding adjacent yards. Doesn't the good of the many (bugs, weeds) count for more than the needs of the one(human)? I'm just a person. These poor plants and creatures are in my power. What am I going to do? Will I do the right thing? So many consequences.

I am not a weedist. I do not hate weeds. I do not hate the bugs and worms. In fact, I think that in the end, it will all be better if I do my part.

Call me a weedist. Deride my vanity. Whine. But I'm doing it. I'm putting in the flowerbeds. And I'm spraying anything that grows in my street and at the curb.

For the record, my preference for flowers is as valid as anyone's weed predilection.