If you drive through my neighborhood in mid-summer, you will see wild morning glories in almost every yard. But here is the thing, they are not morning glories at all. They are bindweed flowers (Convolvulus arvensis} masquerading as morning glories. And the name bindweed tells you most of what you need to know about the plant.
The long twining vine wraps around other plants, sometimes making it difficult to harvest the plant and always sucking up nutrients that belong to the garden. Many people are familiar with the challenges of bind weed above ground. But here’s the other freaky part. When you try to dig bindweed up, you’ll find that the roots mimic the top of the plant. They curve, wrap, and split into other tiny curves and splits. They wrap around other garden plants at the deepest level. Each spring as I get garden beds ready, I dig and pull out as much bind weed as possible. But I never get it all. When you break off a piece, which almost always happens, you have inadvertently started a new plant.
I don’t use poisons on my gardens. And so my choice is to do the best I can to reduce the impact, but know that the bind weed will be part of the yard. If I had a tiny garden space and unlimited time, I might be able to completely eradicate the bindweed. (See below for some not-toxic suggestions for weed removal.) But that is not my situation. And my neighborhood is awash in bindweed. So if I could remove it from my yard completely, I would need constant vigilance for it not to get under or over the fence.
Bindweed has me thinking about the other things that bind us, limit us, and sap our energy. It’s a great poster child for those difficult things that slip into our lives, wrap around, and hold on tight. They may be our own attitudes, habits, and behaviors. But they may just be life challenges presented by others: co-workers, neighbors, and family members. The plant is also a good analogy for the things below the surface that we might not even be thinking about consciously. But they are there interfering with our focus and making it difficult to get through the day. Eradicate them if you can, but sometimes we have to make peace and learn to manage them, reducing or eliminating their impact.
This week’s mindfulness focus is on the bindweed in our lives. First of all identifying it. And then asking how much can we remove and how much do we need to surrender to? We won’t get it all. And even though there is much bindweed in the world, it does have lovely flowers.
For more information on weekly mindfulness focus words click here.
Some non-toxic ways to remove weeds
Boiling water also works to remove weeds
The ending of your blog reminds me of the quote you have used, something like, “we can be sad that the rose bush has thorns, or rejoice that the thorn bush has roses.” In either case, Bindweed is a great analogy that we are always working to improve and never truly done.
Yes! And the flowers are very pretty! 🙂