Weeding Wednesday

It was a busy day in Garden Club.  We had visitors from one of our donor agencies, 

who were quite interested in the harvesting and ingesting of our super-power-inducing scallions.

 When not entertaining visitors, the gardeners got to work removing the invasive parsley sprouts, which we have determined are weeds, a weed being the wrong plant in the wrong place.

Some of the roots were in so deep that a trowel was necessary.

The Rock offers shade and loosened soil for the roots to take a deep hold.  That's just one of the many many many reasons I have offered to deter the gardeners from undermining the stability of one of their favorite places to sit.  I speak, they dig, and so it goes.

 The older gardeners assured me that they were cautious enough to avoid backing into the saguaros, so I opened the gate and let them into The Forbidden Space to weed.  

Though he started with the Fiskar trowel, 

this gardener quickly reverted to what he knew. In Africa, we use our hands, like this...

and he dug in with all 10 fingers, separating the soil and tossing out the entire plant structure, from leaves to roots, fluidly, happily, quickly, competently, all the while chatting me up.  

I love Garden Club.

And there was more.  So much more.

I knew she could be trusted with the sharp pruning tool, so I left her to deadheading the containers. 

As she pointed out, we need to cooperate and we can do this. 

The old hose was refusing to cooperate, but the gardeners were determined.... until the whistle blew and all their efforts unfurled as they raced across the playground to get in line.

And, of course, when there is digging, there are bugs.   The most delicate of all the first grade gardeners carted her treasure carefully, sharing it with anyone who wondered what she was carrying.

The bug was the same color as her bows.  

(don't scroll if you don't want to see the beast)