The Minnesota Farm Woman

Something strange and a little sinister has been happening around here. I have begun to suspect that someone is sneaking into my garden and planting weeds. I don’t know if it is happening at night when we are asleep or during the day when we are at work, but it is certainly the work of a professional.  Anyone who knows me knows that I use no chemicals of any type in my garden, so weeds are a constant battle anyway.   This year, though, it seems worse than usual.  I spend at least a couple of hours every week weeding by hand.  When I get home from work and check the garden,  the weeds are overcrowding the beans and pushing the rutabegas out of their row…again! Looking around at the gardens of others in the area, I can see that this diabolical menace strikes randomly.  Some folks have neat weed-free rows or beds. Their onions are not hidden by yellow nutsedge, their raspberry patch not taken over by thistle.  Others like myself are not as lucky, but we all need to be careful because we don’t know where he will strike next.   I have come up with a solution to nip it in the bud, so to speak. Operation “Weed Whacker” does involve some vigilante justice, though, in order to catch the culprit.   I will volunteer my garden as the test subject. If some of you would just come over and stay hidden somewhere in the garden…just crouch down quietly and wait for him.  Oh, while you’re down there, maybe you can pull a few weeds. If you think you need a weapon, I’ll give you a hoe, so you won’t be so conspicuous. Do I have any volunteers?