I read about the vineyard of the man lacking heart; and see, it was all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; and its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I set my heart on it; I looked and received discipline: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; and your poverty shall come, a prowler, And your need like an armed man. (Midrash Mishle 24:30-34)
Now this is true and is evident in the Cape Winelands where visitors to this area will view well kept vineyards of varying sizes and the result is excellent produce of table grapes and of course grapes picked to make wine!
In contrast to these weeded fields, our vegetable garden looks like a weed patch from far, however, on closer inspection, you will find carefully planted vegetables, some of which are hidden by weeds, other are surrounded by weeds, why is this? We live on a game reserve and do not use insecticides or herbicides, what grows, grows and what is eaten gets eaten, we share our produce. To reduce the insects getting stuck in during the initial growth stages, we have found leaving the weeds to grow provides a cover for toads & the toads eat a good portion of insects, it also hides the flowers from petal eating beetles and the growth tip from leaf/stem eating insects. We have ladybirds eating the aphids and have noticed an increase in produce per plant!
Although we allow the weeds to grow, we do take care to keep their size reduced, also checking how close they grow to the vegetables, to ensure sufficient sunlight gets to the vegies to photosynthesize.
There is a reason for our vegetable garden having weeds, what’s yours?