Yesterday in the little bit of time that I had between things during the break in the weather I did some weeding in my front yard. I remember how my mom loved gardening. I hated it. The one great thing about developing Spondylolisthesis in high school and wearing a back brace for 6-weeks was that I didn't have to help weed any more! It hurt my back.
I have discovered that although it sucked weeding while growing up, I thoroughly enjoy it now. I think it makes a difference when it is your house. I do enjoy the immediate gratification I get from seeing how much of a difference I have made too. And another great thing is that my mom lives only a few miles away and she sometimes comes and helps me weed. For hours. I figure it is my gift to her to allow her to weed, since she enjoys it so much. But really she has helped me a lot over the past three years getting my beds into shape and that has really been a gift for me. Plus we get to hang out and chat and so we have fun. And I have no idea where to trim rose bushes or tree branches so she helps tell me where to trim and I put in the manual labour of sawing tree branches or trimming my butterfly bush a perch a ladder.
Yesterday, I came across a few worms and tried to move them to a safe place where I wouldn't shovel them.
In junior high school we had an assembly with people from the Seattle Science Center. They had an aquarium full of dirt, some lettuce leaves, and a few other things, including several worms. I believe they asked us what we saw. They told us that they had only put produce in there and no dirt. So why were we saying that we saw dirt? Turns out that the worms made the dirt. Which is both cool and gross to think about. I have remembered that assembly ever since. That's the only part I remember but it has fascinated me ever since. I have a composting bin in my yard, but I really want a wormery for my deck. How awesome are worms? They create soil, which is something good, by eating my old produce scraps, which is also good. I don't have to throw my scraps away, I can recycle them. And I can use good quality dirt without having to buy fertilizer.
I do feel bad for worms though too. What a tough and dangerous life they lead. On days like today where it is pouring down rain, they run the risk of drowning. So they crawl, slither, inch...what do worms do? to the surface so that they can breathe. Here they become prime targets for bird food and if it gets too sunny too fast they burn and die. And people step on them. And on regular days of just chillin' in their homes they run the rick of having someone come and dig in their area and chop them in half. Worms should move to the forest where there is a nice canopy to shelter them from the sun and too much rain. Less foot traffic, less digging, and less likely that they would need to escape to the surface and then become a bird's breakfast. But I am glad that there are worms who have decided to live at my house and increase the quality of my land. I do try and be good to them.
I am thankful for worms.
kk
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