Weeding

My distaste for weeding is well-documented, but here is the problem: I just don't like looking at a messy garden. Do you see the tension, then, that accompanies my life as a gardener? Which is worse -- having to weed? Or having a garden that looks like my sister's hair in the morning?

Bottom line: I spent several hours in the garden this weekend. In addition to the slight sunburn (despite wearing my new "head umbrella," which I won at a recent Canada Day party because I answered all the hockey questions correctly on the Canada trivia quiz) on my neck, I also contracted an affliction I have named "Weeder's Finger." Weeder's Finger is a pain that starts between the thumb and forefinger and shoots across the palm to the base of the pinky. You don't understand; our garden was (and still is) really weedy, and I pulled zillions of them. (See "before" and "after" shots above -- of just one row of our garden.)

Something has to give here. I can't be weeding like this all summer. Yes, we have lettuce coming out our eyeballs, and yes, the peas are as sweet as can be. But I just don't like looking at a garden that looks like a rat's nest. And my Weeder's Finger can't handle pulling too many more.

I'm just about at my breaking point.