Our garden has been sadly neglected, besides watering, over the last several BUSY weeks. This week I told myself I HAD to give it some TLC if I wanted any produce. Though it has been crazy working in the morning, gardening til 4, showering, and then going to the fair at church til 11, it looks great now!
What it looked like when I started on Monday. Adam had rototilled between the rows, but a couple feet on either side of the plants was all grass and weeds.
The raised beds looked like raised beds of grass!
I have created a top list of the worst vegetables and fruits (grown from seeds) to try to leave behind while weeding out a field of grass.
4. Watermelon-They don't have the same shape leaves like the other cucurbits and their leaves look similar to a type of weed we have.
3. Cherry Tomatoes -Their only redeeming quality is they smell like tomatoes. When in doubt smell the leaves.
2. Carrots and Dill-They are so skinny and have barely any root system. It is far too easy to pull out a plant.
1. Green Onions-You will see a picture of those in a minute. They are like strands of green hair sticking up in a field of grass.
This is supposed to be a raised bed of dill. All I see is grass.
I was able to find some dill in there. Yay! Dill for my pickles!
Duh Duh Duuuuuhhh.....
The Green Onions
Imagine with me. Finding this.
In a field of this (at the bottom).
THIS!
In a field of THIS.
I actually probably did find about 10 green onions. But that's it. Either no more grew or I weeded them out. Ah well.
After wedding for 2 hours on Tuesday and 3.5 hours on Wednesday (nevermind the 95 degree heat!) and Adam rototilled between the rows, it looks great again!
This year we decided to try using grass clippings as weed control. Adam raked up grass clippings from the last time he mowed (we won't talk about when that was) and I spread them on either side of my plants. Not TOO close they suffocate. But close enough so that it keeps some weeds away. When he mows again, I will spread more between the rows.
Introducing our garden!
Butternut squash and zucchini
carrots
Which I may never plant again. I've never had great luck. They are so tiny. And do you know who has great carrots? THE GROCERY STORE!
summer squash and spaghetti squash
big boy tomatoes and cherry tomatoes
cantaloupe and watermelon
watermelon
yellow onions and green onions (see, so tiny you can't even see them!)
green beans
sugar snap peas
3 rows of cucumbers
garlic (for my pickles)
dill (for my pickles)
(Don't look at the two raised beds I didn't get to!)
My weed pile from 2 days of weeding.
Yay!
My whole body was covered in dirt!
I am really hoping to have some success with the watermelon and cantaloupe this year. Last year we had 1 good cantaloupe and some animals got to the rest. We planted them in the middle of the garden rather than the end this year to hopefully help with that.
The only things that look like they have failed are: lemon cucumbers (never tried them before, they just looked cool) and strawberries. Not enough water? Too much sun? Don't know.
My next order of business is to stake up the sugar snap peas! And weed the last two raised beds. One is the probably all dead strawberries. And the other is asparagus. We won't get that this year, but it looks like some plants ARE growing. Maybe next year!
