The Art of the Subtraction of Garden Weeds

A garden is a living work of art. A beautiful garden is not a random collection of plants, flowers, trees and the occasional tomato. There is a schematic order to a garden. It represents a great deal of hours put into the cultivation and care of the living organic plants that comprise the garden. When the garden becomes infected with garden weeds, it ceases to become a work of art and descends into a chaotic mess. Even the minor presence of garden weeds can create this totally chaotic mess.

When referring to a garden as a work of art, one must look at the root definition of art. Art, in linguistic terms, derives from a definition that refers to putting everything in its rightful place. A garden that is a work of art (devoid of garden weeds) will have a sense of order to it. There will be no random scattering of plants and flowers all over the garden. And within sections, such as a flower section, a quality garden will be sure that the intermixing of flowers has some sense of subdivided order. That is, the different colors and shapes of the flowers will not clash with one another. No one would deliberately create a design of a garden that did not look visually appealing.

As such, garden weeds can upend even the most orderly and structured and visually pleasing garden. Garden weeds are unwelcome and unwanted guests in a garden. Actually, to call garden weeds guests is a real stretch. A more accurate term to apply would probably be gatecrasher.

If garden weeds appear in a garden, they did not get there by planning. They got there either by oversight or neglect. Garden weeds can not make a garden look good so there is no working with these weeds. They need to be extracted and removed. Doing so returns a sense of order to the garden. This retains the artful integrity of the garden.