Blog Details
Mum's Garden - June Edition
Date:27th June 2014| Category:General
“Mum’s Garden” - June Edition
This month it's on Weeding;
Gill and I would spend many a time chatting about our varied gardens, often comparing notes or helping each other weed and trim or simply sit back, admiring the view. I do still chat to Gill about many aspects of my rambling cottage garden. This morning as I was vigorously weeding an old tomato patch, I thought; why not include others in these endearing and personal conversations. So here I am drafting my first ‘Mum’s Garden’ article for you. If you haven’t as yet browsed other pages of Gill’s touching website, please do.
One of my aims is to share with you tips and ideas that will assist you in your endeavour to create a beautiful, practical and rewarding garden. To enable the conversation to be a two way one please send me some of your garden experiences or questions. I would love to hear from you.
Weeding a large spot in the vegie garden:
I decided to get stuck into weeding this nearly forgotten side of the vegie patch; it faces south and had the best tomatoes ever two years ago. The plants were ragged broken stalks, easy to pull out, and the soil is perfect for weeding, moist but not soggy. Since the bush fire, we have a variety of weeds finding their way into the garden, but don’t despair, this is easy going. Just get into it, think of other things and the job will be done in a flash. Two hours later all the weeds are gone then all I have to do is cover the soil with straw and manure - from the sheep house, a little lime on top, and Bob’s your uncle. Ready for spring planting and very few weeds! What could be easier? The key here is to cover the bare soil with mulch of some type. Straw, Lucerne hay, pea straw, even old sheep fleeces. See what you have or can source, ask around. What started out as an overwhelming task turned into a ready to go fertilised, inviting, rested, now stress free, spot in my happy vegie garden. Have a go. Tell me how it went for you.
PS: Sometimes I don’t even weed, I simply cover the weeds with the straw and manure from the sheep houses, at least 4-6 inches. There is quite a bit of urine in this so you need to be careful, add some lime, then let it rest for at least four to six months.
Also the worms will love it.I love garden worms! When gardening be careful not to kill them, it’s relatively easy to see them, dig down a little, take it easy, if you find some be careful, if there are several in one spot perhaps you could dig in another place. Also I don’t dig my soil over and over then break it down with a spade, I prefer to build the soil up, add manures, mulch or compost and over time you will have rich friable soil. No need for all that disrupting of the natural layers.
Another thing I do when weeding is, providing there is sufficient space, form a pile of weeds, not the invasive ones, and let them rot down, and after all they are full of nutrients your garden will benefit from. Bugs, worms and other garden treasures will love this winter home, by spring/summer you’ll have no weeds, instead you’ll be gifted with some yummy fertilised soil.
Try to get rid of weeds if you can as they can quickly take over. If you have a difficult spot try covering them with black plastic or old animal feed bags with a few bricks on top, a bit of patience and you may find the weeds will have died/rotted. It can take several months, so give it time. These non toxic ways do take longer.
While I was busy weeding my mind took me to a creative place. Digging pulling, digging pulling, while thinking of other ideas in the garden, I designed an area that had been difficult to imagine, now it's clear in my head and won’t take long to complete. I love these care free thinking times; you can come up with amazing ideas. Let boring weeding be your friend.
As I write I'm constantly thinking of things that happen, it’s all a bit whimsical at times, so please forgive me. One thing I remember with the weeding is - if the chooks are low on greens over the winter months I collect the weeds then feed them to the chooks, they scratch around for hours. I don’t let these blue egged beauties into the garden very often as they can be destructive, disrupting root systems, creating large holes or eating young seedlings. My current girls are a flighty lot and can fly off into who knows where, not to worry they have a huge netted-in area where there is a small orchard. Lots to fossick in! I must add that I do let them out at specific times of the year.
Lastly, when pulling out just a few weeds consider rolling them up into a tight ball, really scrunch them up, you can then throw them back in the garden if you choose.
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed our garden chat. Talk to you soon.
Annette.
This month it's on Weeding;
Gill and I would spend many a time chatting about our varied gardens, often comparing notes or helping each other weed and trim or simply sit back, admiring the view. I do still chat to Gill about many aspects of my rambling cottage garden. This morning as I was vigorously weeding an old tomato patch, I thought; why not include others in these endearing and personal conversations. So here I am drafting my first ‘Mum’s Garden’ article for you. If you haven’t as yet browsed other pages of Gill’s touching website, please do.
One of my aims is to share with you tips and ideas that will assist you in your endeavour to create a beautiful, practical and rewarding garden. To enable the conversation to be a two way one please send me some of your garden experiences or questions. I would love to hear from you.
Weeding a large spot in the vegie garden:
I decided to get stuck into weeding this nearly forgotten side of the vegie patch; it faces south and had the best tomatoes ever two years ago. The plants were ragged broken stalks, easy to pull out, and the soil is perfect for weeding, moist but not soggy. Since the bush fire, we have a variety of weeds finding their way into the garden, but don’t despair, this is easy going. Just get into it, think of other things and the job will be done in a flash. Two hours later all the weeds are gone then all I have to do is cover the soil with straw and manure - from the sheep house, a little lime on top, and Bob’s your uncle. Ready for spring planting and very few weeds! What could be easier? The key here is to cover the bare soil with mulch of some type. Straw, Lucerne hay, pea straw, even old sheep fleeces. See what you have or can source, ask around. What started out as an overwhelming task turned into a ready to go fertilised, inviting, rested, now stress free, spot in my happy vegie garden. Have a go. Tell me how it went for you.
PS: Sometimes I don’t even weed, I simply cover the weeds with the straw and manure from the sheep houses, at least 4-6 inches. There is quite a bit of urine in this so you need to be careful, add some lime, then let it rest for at least four to six months.
Also the worms will love it.I love garden worms! When gardening be careful not to kill them, it’s relatively easy to see them, dig down a little, take it easy, if you find some be careful, if there are several in one spot perhaps you could dig in another place. Also I don’t dig my soil over and over then break it down with a spade, I prefer to build the soil up, add manures, mulch or compost and over time you will have rich friable soil. No need for all that disrupting of the natural layers.
Another thing I do when weeding is, providing there is sufficient space, form a pile of weeds, not the invasive ones, and let them rot down, and after all they are full of nutrients your garden will benefit from. Bugs, worms and other garden treasures will love this winter home, by spring/summer you’ll have no weeds, instead you’ll be gifted with some yummy fertilised soil.
Try to get rid of weeds if you can as they can quickly take over. If you have a difficult spot try covering them with black plastic or old animal feed bags with a few bricks on top, a bit of patience and you may find the weeds will have died/rotted. It can take several months, so give it time. These non toxic ways do take longer.
While I was busy weeding my mind took me to a creative place. Digging pulling, digging pulling, while thinking of other ideas in the garden, I designed an area that had been difficult to imagine, now it's clear in my head and won’t take long to complete. I love these care free thinking times; you can come up with amazing ideas. Let boring weeding be your friend.
As I write I'm constantly thinking of things that happen, it’s all a bit whimsical at times, so please forgive me. One thing I remember with the weeding is - if the chooks are low on greens over the winter months I collect the weeds then feed them to the chooks, they scratch around for hours. I don’t let these blue egged beauties into the garden very often as they can be destructive, disrupting root systems, creating large holes or eating young seedlings. My current girls are a flighty lot and can fly off into who knows where, not to worry they have a huge netted-in area where there is a small orchard. Lots to fossick in! I must add that I do let them out at specific times of the year.
Lastly, when pulling out just a few weeds consider rolling them up into a tight ball, really scrunch them up, you can then throw them back in the garden if you choose.
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed our garden chat. Talk to you soon.
Annette.
Author: GRB