Do you know if there’s any way to roll a joint made out of chick-weed?

Admidst all the uproar about the use of medical pot in Washington State, I’ve been wondering if there’s any way I could capitalize on the action by harvesting and putting my abundant chick-weed up for sale. 

This is what happened.  Two summers ago, in 2009, I noticed this cute little weed springing up here and there amongst the Irish Moss I was trying to cultivate.   It was super-cute.  Perky little sprouts started dancing around the back yard and then, much to my delight, some charming little white flowers began to appear.   “What a great volunteer ground cover this could be”, I thought.  “Welcome!”, I said.

Several weeks later, my granddaughter Colleen went outside on one of her weeding conquests. Coming in from the backyard, she said, “Grandma, we’ve gotta do something about all that chick-weed out there.”

“What’s chick-weed?” I asked.

“It’s that crop that’s trying to swallow up the back yard,” she said.

After she showed me, I said “Oh that. It’s a natural ground cover. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Only to God”, she said.  

I didn’t believe it.  How could such an adorable little package be undesirable in anybody’s back yard.  I looked up “chick-weed” on the internet.  True, it is a weed, but it’s edible and it has medicinal value.  You can even make tea out of it.  You might not be able to choke it down, but while you were trying, you could feel like a real nature-lover.

A few weeks later, my son-in-law Brad was helping me in the backyard.  “God”, he said, (appropriately as it turned out), “where did all this chick-weed come from?”

“It’s a natural ground cover”, I replied.  “Isn’t nature wonderful?”

“In this case, only to God”. he said.  “To everybody else, this chick-weed is going- going-going gone-to-seed and it’s way too late for Round-up.”

Dash-it-all, I fear he may be right.  It does seem that chick-weed has over-taken all wild-life in the back yard.  That is why, tomorrow – even though it’s Saturday and I wanted to sleep late – I am going to get up early.  Colleen is bringing by a band of her cutthroat friends who are going to go out in the back yard, gloved and assertive, and they are going to methodically murder all the chick-weed they can get their gloves on.

Instead of putting it in yard waste, I just wish I could make a cash crop out of it.