The Scope Of The Problem

Anyone that gardens for very long soon becomes aware of just how little impact their efforts have on the final outcome.  This year has certainly been an experience here.  After horrid early frosts there was a very long period of frost free nights that happened when frost remains likely.  We never had to cover our Oriental Lilies in order to protect them from possible frost.  The later half of June was unusually hot and dry.  A pick your own strawberry operation closed their fields for days to allow their plants time to recover from weather stress.  We had several of our small patches of strawberry plants wither and die.  Then the rains came.  Hot humid rainy days were nearly a daily event.  The rain was too late to save the desired plants but the weed seeds germinated and grew like crazy.

We formerly used two civilized compost bins to recycle our kitchen scraps and garden weeds.  This year the weeds are present in never before seen quantities and carry huge seed loads.  This photo shows where we dump these weeds.  The top green colored layer shows the extent of the weeds removed from the garden this morning.

I may be the luckiest man alive since my wife really enjoys attacking the weeds that are overtaking her garden.  Of course she is surrounded by the scent of Summer Sweet flowers and frequently experiences close flybys from Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.  Her garden is far from the road so the natural stillness quiets the mind.  Cooler temperatures added to the pleasantness of working outside today.

This area provided us with fresh strawberries this year.  The plants had been carefully weeded then mulched with chopped straw.  We did bring some water to the plants but when drought comes we simply cannot carry enough water to the garden to meet the needs of all of our plants.  Here the desired plants died and the horrid grassy weeds took over.  Two tools were used to clear the mess.  The tined spade can be seen while the Cobra Head hand cultivator is hidden by the weeds.  The blue trug was filled many times with grassy weeds.

The far side of the stone path was cleaned up yesterday.  The lavender is mulched with a collar of small sized stones.  We have found this method improves the winter survival rate of lavender.  The arc of brown ground bark mulch might keep the bulbs beneath it in a weed free spot.  We still have much work to do in both directions along the paths.

Here we can see two areas that performed as expected this year.  The bed with the chicken wire grew snow peas earlier this year.  The chopped tree leaves kept this ground cool and moist favoring pea growth.  A few weeds did have to be cleared from where the peas grew but this ground was soon ready to replant.  We had just enough leftover seeds to plant a row on either side of the wire.  We may never harvest a fall pea here but all we have invested in this effort is an hour or two of being in the garden.  Continued use will keep this area in good shape.

The planting bed on the far side of the path was also replanted this morning.  Our third planting of summer squash seeds went here.  We do not usually replant the same crop in the place recently used but what is the risk.  September frosts do occasionally happen here so these plants may be lost before they bear any fruit.  We still have several bags of tree leaves collected last fall.  We will spread them on the lawn to dry then run them thru the mower to give us fine mulch to place on this newly planted ground.  That will keep this area looking like the people that garden here actually have some idea about what they are doing.