Shot Weed in the Writing Garden

Shot Weed in the Writing Garden © 2012

 C.D. Hersh

 The unusually warm days this week enabled me to take a stroll through the yard, another put-my-butt-in-the-writing chair avoidance tactic. I found a slew of winter weeds scattered throughout the landscape. Some tiny-leafed, prostrate thing has taken over a portion of the easement making it the greenest it has been in seven years. Buckhorn plantain spills out between the path stepping stones. Flat rosettes of chickweed carpet the stone gully in the backyard, and henbit, with its scalloped leaves and purple stems, juts out of the grass—or at least what passes for grass in the lawn. 

Henbit

 I considered letting the unidentified weed taking over the easement and the lawn. It’s green, low growing, and doesn’t look like it would need much mowing. All of this would be a bonus since I’m about to lose my kind neighbor who mows the easement and the small square of grass in the front yard. But after an afternoon of surfing weed identification web sites (another avoidance tactic), I’ve come to the conclusion that I might have to dig out this patch of weeds and eradicate it every other spot I find. You see, if I’ve identified it correctly, I’m harboring shot weed, also known as hairy bittercress. Oh, it looks innocent enough, but when it sets seeds the slightest touch will send hundreds of seeds shooting out in a three-foot radius across the lawn into flowerbeds and pathways looking spots to hide and root.  

 I’m constantly fighting weeds in my garden. I start in early spring digging out winter weeds like plantain, chickweed, and henbit from the paths and flower beds. By the time I get those eradicated the dandelions rear their yellow heads. After that it’s pigweed and purslane and nutsedge and Canadian thistles and Jimson weed and ground ivy and goose grass.  Spring and summer progress marked by an army of weeds marching through the garden.  I hoe and pull and mulch and spray, and they just keep coming. The only thing that keeps them under control is persistent daily effort—and maybe a hard, hard freeze

Chickweed

 Like the cycle of weeds in the garden, writers face different challenges along every stage of our careers. As soon as we think we have a handle on our craft and profession something new springs up and surprises us. The beginning writer’s weeds might be learning the basics of the craft or finding that story idea or dealing with writer’s block. For some it’s getting to the end of the book, or figuring out what to do with the sagging middle. For the more skilled, unpublished writers the weeds that need pulling could be social networking, getting an agent, or getting published. Whatever the weeds in your writer yard there’s one universal truth—they will always be there. Our job is to figure the best way to control them.

 I’m not a beginning writer. I know how to write. That has been reinforced with a number of contest placements. I have a good grasp of the skills it takes to get published. I know my stories and the characters. I even have books waiting in the wings to be written. But I still have writing weeds to pull—BIG ones.

• I don’t have an agent or a publisher for my books—yet.
• I want to write in several genres, which presents a big branding problem and sometimes an identity crisis.
• I’m still building my social networking and internet connections in those multiple genres—one of the biggest weeds for a lot of writers. We are, after all, basically solitary people.
• Currently, I’m spending more time blogging than writing the books.

 Gertrude Jekyll, one of the most important British landscape designers and writers, once said, “There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight. It cannot always be done easily; many things worth doing are not done easily; but there is no place under natural conditions that cannot be graced with an adornment of suitable vegetation.”

 Gertrude’s advice applies not only to the garden, and all those weedy patches I have to fight, but to writing as well. The road to success isn’t easy, but we can accomplish it. We can transform those bare, ugly pages into something overflowing with suitable vegetation (the best words and story we can make). When we finally reach that goal it’s worth the work. So, pull those weeds out of your writing garden and create something beautiful!

 What are the writing weeds that are stopping you from creating your masterpiece? Do you have a plan to pull them out?