As you likely have noticed from pictures of my garden that I have posted, I do, indeed, have weeds in my yard. Is anyone's yard totally weed free? That's not likely unless they have a personal gardener or a yard maintenance crew. Yesterday the Fresno County Master Gardeners held their annual home garden tour. They feature five homes with different types of gardens, kind of something-for-everyone. You can take pictures, ask questions (MG are posted at each garden), and take away new ideas that you might incorporate into your own garden. To make these gardens look perfect takes many long man-hours, put in by a team in each garden, over the course of several weeks. They do a lot of WEEDING, pruning and planting to bring each yard up to perfection. With my yard, I have no personal gardener or yard maintenance crew. The last eight years I have been going to college (including several summers), which has taken all of my time. I was able to get out into my garden only a couple of times, literally, over the course of each semester. I would also work in my yard during the winter breaks, but spring (Easter) breaks were used to write reports. This spring I spent two weeks in Sandpoint, Idaho, visiting my parents, so seed-starting/planting was pushed back and the weeds got a foot-hold. I have been re-doing my "sewing" room, turning it into a food storage room. Everything has been removed so I could paint, and that "everything" sits in my living room, family room and dining room (what a mess!). So, you can see, my gardening has taken a back seat for some time. And, spring has gotten ahead of me! With our heatwave early this season, the weeds burst forth with a vengeance, especially the nut sedge (it's worse than Bermuda grass). I also, with the help of my husband, Dave, am trying to get a new vegetable garden in. This has taken several weeks as Dave is working on his Master's Degree through National Schools, so he has been intensively working on that the past four weeks. When the new boxes are in place and planted, I will be able to focus more on the rest of the yard. The front yard is nearly weed-free, and looks nice for the neighbors. My husband has also bought and planted numerous flowers in the front yard, because he "wants lots of color!" Now, I will focus more on the backyard, especially the veggie boxes, and get into a working routine.
This picture shows one end of my main box garden. I have Roma tomatoes, Contender Bush Beans (lighter green), Bountiful Esther Dry Beans (darker green), Amish Melon (hard to see, it's planted between the tomato rows), and Sumter Pickling Cucumbers (there is a trellis in the upper left corner of the picture; the plants are about 6" tall and hard to see, too). You can see the mulch around the tomatoes (there is straw around the beans). This mulch started out like the weeds in the picture below. With our hot days coming on it doesn't take long for the weeds to become a nice mulch once they are pulled and layed on the soil. It takes just a few days and the weed/mulch turns from green to brown.
This picture shows what I did last night. The crabgrass, plus a few nutsedges, was about 18" high, the soil was moist (not wet), and so I used my trusty knife to get the weeds pulled. This is a mixed bed of flowers and vegetables---I couldn't wait for my new raised garden boxes and I just planted vegetables everywhere earlier this spring! I pulled the weeds and layed them down on the ground. It is hot enough that the weeds wither in a day or two and won't re-grow. I worked until it was so dark that I couldn't see the weeds anymore. When I stopped to go in the house, I realized that my knife was nowhere to be found! I suppose it is under the weeds somewhere!! I will look for it later today or tomorrow, and hopefully I will find it!
I bought these strawberries and boysenberries this morning. Guess what I am doing this afternoon?!? I am making my Berry Good Jam. I just use the pectin recipe for strawberry jam, but substitute boysenberries for half of the strawberries. It has a wonderful flavor and is very easy to make! I didn't have enough of this jam to last me through last year, so I am making sure I have plenty this year!
