Substantial Progress

Every trick in our gardening book is on display in this picture.  Quack grass has a firm hold on our ground and will quickly reclaim it when we no longer garden here.  We  do still garden here and continue to cultivate new ground.  Thick piles of grass clippings allow us to rather easily remove both the quack grass and its wildly invasive just under the surface white roots.  If any trace of these roots are left behind, the entire plant quickly reappears.  It appears both angry and determined as its new growth is quick and spreading.  The grass clippings rot down forming a fibrous mat.  Quack grass roots reform between the ground and the rotting clippings.  It is relatively easy to remove everything at once leaving behind bare soil.

Plastic bags containing last years tree leaves will help us maintain our hold on newly cleared ground.  A trip through the push mower will transform this waste to miracle mulch.  Placed under the sumac trees, rotting leaves help create woodland soil for the shade loving plants placed there.  Out in the open, chopped leaves maintain adequate moisture in the covered soil, smother weeds and rot down producing rich fertile soil.

Yesterday we cleared to about the middle of what will become our sunny meadow planting.  Nearly all of our tools are in the photo.  The spade is pushed under the grass in a more horizontal move than its usual push straight down into the soil.  Lifting the end of the handle rolls up mats of rotting clippings and complete quack grass plants.  It is amazingly satisfying to totally remove this pest from what will soon become home for sun loving native plants.

This is our pile of recently removed vegetation.  Since it started by filling in a depression, this mass is more then six feet tall.  Its major component is rotting grass clippings so finished compost will rather quickly be available for our use.

Today we nearly reached the property line separating our garden from the neighbor's mowed field.  Cinder blocks have been placed well outside of the right-of-way for several years and will be removed when this ground is planted.  Low growing rugged plants will be placed near the turn should the twelve foot wide path be insufficient for whatever combination of big truck and big camper needs to drive on the garden.  Hopefully that event will remain uncommon although it almost occurred last weekend.  The driver was skilled and declined my offer to move the cinder blocks.  His exit was therefore uneventful.

We would like to begin placing plants in this new ground now.  If wisdom prevails, we will wait until spring to allow any missed pieces of weed to show themselves.  Complete removal will again be tried giving our chosen plants a head start on the determined weed.