Weekly update 6/22 & 6/29 - Weeds and Rain

It has been raining for weeks now.  Just about every day between Father's Day and Sunday, June 22 it rained.  Not just a nice shower, a sweeping, heavy rain and wind storm that soaked the ground.  When I went to the garden to weed and harvest everything was so wet that even walking on the paths was a sloppy slippery mess. If you pulled a weed you got large clumps of soil along with it.  There was no possibility of weeding without severely damaging the garden, compressing the soil, and making a mess. So we put away the tools and went home.

taken 6-21-14

I remember when this happened in 1993 and caused the Mississippi River to flood so I am hoping we get a reprieve from the continuing rain soon, but it is not looking that great.

you can see lots of weeds, but not too big yet (6-21-14)

It wasn't until Friday June 27 that I was finally able to get into the garden.  It did not rain on Thursday at all and Wednesday it rained only in the morning, so by Friday I thought I might have a chance to attack the weeds that were quickly taking over. Now with another week of growth, some weeds were bigger than the plants they surrounded.

You cannot even see the basil planted between the tomatoes

Friday was hot and humid.  I worked for two hours or so and got about 1/3 of the garden weeded.  By the end I was a hot, sweaty mess that took two showers to make human again.  Granted I did the hardest parts first because, well I know myself, if I have to come back and the hardest part is left, I will throw up my hands in despair and run away, however if I return and see an easier task I will knuckle down and get to work.

around the weeded beans 6-27-14

Friday night, the hubby came back with me to the garden around 7 PM and we worked for another hour and tackled most of the weeds.  The garden looks much better now and I think that we got most of them before they produced seed.

Will not weed the herb garden until next week, but everything else is well weeded now.

Keys to Tackling a Weed Population:

Weeds are opportunistic plants, popping up wherever conditions allow. Even if you embrace a more casual attitude toward weeds, you'll want to control their growth by focusing on prevention as well as eradication. With that in mind, think about all the things that you do to stimulate plant growth. Now, to suppress weeds, do the opposite. 

1. Yank them young

Your first defense against weeds is to pull or hoe them before they get established. Learn to identify weeds as young seedlings and nab them as they emerge. 

2. Stop the seed

If you don't get them as babies, at least don't let them go to seed. As the old gardening saw goes, "One year's seeding makes seven years' weeding."

3 . Mulch

Organic mulches include compost, shredded leaves, wood chips, bark, dried grass clippings, and other biodegradable material. A 2- to 3-inch layer will keep sunlight from reaching the weed seeds, preventing their germination. Apply mulch immediately after weeding or digging your soil. Take care to keep mulch an inch or two away from plant stems to prevent rot caused by moisture retained in the mulch. Your mulch material will also conserve water, keep roots cool, and nourish the soil as it decomposes. 

Another gardener put grass clippings over the entire plot then planted through them.

4. Plant densely

Grow plants close together, and they will consume the available space, nutrients, and sunlight, thereby bullying the weeds out of the way.  This works really well for herbs.  But even my husband commented once the tomatoes get a bit bigger they will starve out most of the weeds around them.

tightly planted lettuce crops

5. Pull, Dig and Hoe

Remember not to yank perennial weeds. You'll break off the root, and another weed will appear. Use a long screwdriver or weed-pulling tool with a forked end. Hand-pulling becomes easier as your soil improves.  For larger weeds, you may want to use a shovel to get all the root and runners.  And using a pointed hoe, diamond shaped, give you the ability to scrape off shallow root weeds and dig out a pesky established weed.

6. Cover

Some gardeners use plastic sheeting, newspaper, and weed-barrier cloth (sometimes called landscape cloth) as mulchlike covers. This is very popular in the Community Garden.  Probably among people who do not have the time to stop by the garden everyday to yank the young weeds.  If this is you, just play the material over your planting areas and cut holes for your plants to grow through. Dark fabric will block out light and smother young weeds.  

Another garden in the community patch using landscape cloth