oh weeding. the bane of every gardener's existence (am i right?). yesterday i dedicated a good three hours to weeding our existing front garden (looks a lot better than the last time you saw it, right?). i figured i'd better get that one under control before i start a whole new garden space. i have some kind of aggressive, spreading weed that has a very complex root system underneath the soil and i just can't seem to get ahead of it. i do my best to pull up the roots, but it's hard! during the hours i was working on this space, i alternated from feeling meditative and calm, to overwhelmed that i would never get all these weeds out, and as soon as i did, they'd just grow back anyways.
i'm definitely not anti-weed, as i'm not concerned about having a pristine looking garden space at all. really the only reason i'm concerned about the weeds is when they start choking out the plants that i want to thrive. weeding out this space made me realize how much space is still available to be filled in, so i'm hoping to transplant some things from my backyard garden areas (which are overcrowded) to the front here. maybe having less open space will deter the weeds? i'm also planning to put down a good amount of mulch.
so what to do you do about weeds? my go-to tools are just a trowel and a hand cultivator. what tools are your favorites? do you use weed-blocking landscaping fabric? i'm not a big fan, but that's just my preference. i'm open to any and all advice and experience you have!
boiling water? vinegar? (although that my taint the soil.) a blow torch? (seriously, my husband took a blow torch to our gravel drive way on saturday.) i've never tried any of these. my method is good old fashion elbow grease. i've learned that doing it often is the key for the the pesky weeds.
ReplyDeleteand you're right, there's a fine line between being meditative and frustrating.
i think the answer is definitely doing it more often, and that's hilarious about your husband!
DeleteI finally bought a cultivator this year and it has made weeding pretty fun; it saves my aching knuckles from hours of being in the same position. We started our garden from scratch (we're in the city), so we immediately planted cover crops on our new soil. This helped with controlling some of the weeds. It is fun to skip over the buckwheat, clover, and hairy vetch and just let those plants live to see another day - and to build up our soil. :)
ReplyDeletei wish we could have started from scratch with this one! i guess that's the price you pay when you inherit someone else's space. sounds like you've got a pretty good situation on your hands!
Deleteis that crazy weed grass-like? it might be bermuda grass. it can grow below & above the surface of any bed. it's root system can stretch up to four feet below a surface & invade your garden! we deal with it on a daily basis around here. cardboard is the only thing that seems to help although i feel like cardboard won't work in this situation. i would recommend continuing to weed & add at least three inches of mulch. you can do it, girl! :)
ReplyDeleteit's not grass like at all (you might be able to see it better in my previous post about the front yard, before i weeded!). but i would not be surprised if these roots are a few feet underneath the soil. i think i do just need to weed more frequently so it doesn't have a chance to establish even more roots. i don't know how well cardboard would stay since it's on a hill...but, yes, lots of mulch!
DeleteFind out, whether the weed you are fighting is edible! Many plants are, so you might find some good in the bad.
ReplyDeleteFor example, this is a plant commonly called weed that is growing everywhere over here these days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegopodium_podagraria . But it is edible and one can prepare it like spinach. I have quite some books about edible wildplants but they are all in german so I can't recommend them to you. Anyway - you get the point.
Best greetings, Katharina
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