Our heroine vanquishes the giant thistle, and other tales of weeding

Thistle growing up thru a rose

I quite admired the audacity of the gigantic thistle which had the good fortune to germinate at the base of one the few roses in my garden and grow tall enough to rise above its thorn-covered stems.

A thorn among thorns.

As I looked at the thistle, I wondered how I would get back to there to pull it out.

Should I get as close as possible to the rose and then pull the thorns out from above?  Or should I crawl over to the base of the rose, ninja style, and pull out the thistle from ground level.

After sizing up the entire situation and noting the plants around the rose -  the lilac on the one side and the false indigo on the other side, along with some asters and variegated coralberry - I decided it was not possible to get to the thistle from ground level, ninja style.

I would have to carefully make my way between the lilac and the coralberry to the rose and get as close as I could without being scratched and permanently scarred.

I took precautions, of course.

Primarily, taking precautions meant putting on my Knights of The Rose Trimmers garden gloves.

Knights of the Rose Trimmers garden gloves

With my armor on, I gingerly pulled aside branches and boughs and slowly made my way through the lush of the garden to the rose and thistle.

One by one, I pulled out each thistle, reaching down the stem as far as I could. One, two... eight thistles. I tossed each on out of the flower border and onto the lawn.

Then I turned and gracefully made my way back through the lilac and coralberry, back to where I wasn't surrounded by thorny stems ready to scratch and claw at me.

I was victorious and don't mind telling you that after I yanked off the Knights of the Rose Trimmers garden gloves, which are quite too heavy to wear in the summer-time, I stood in quiet, triumphant celebration over the thistle before cutting the long stems into pieces and tossing them into the trash.

Then, as any heroine would do, I looked around for my next foe to vanquish.

Ah yes, I see it.  It's the purslane and nut sedge in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral.

I'll tackle them next,  just as soon as it stops raining long enough for me to go back out into the garden.