This bumper crop of weeds needs harvested.
With the arrival of our seeds, it was past time to assess the condition of the garden. After providing a home to lettuce, broccoli, radishes, and potatoes that over-wintered, a number of weeds decided to take up residence, and while I thought I was keeping them at bay, I was only fooling myself. Now, manual labor was the only way to rehabilitate out precious garden boxes.
Since each bed already had some vegetables growing, the hand cultivator would be my tool of choice. Bent over, kneeling on the ground, sifting through the dirt, and banging as much of the soil from the weeds roots as I could, it took 2 days to recover our 3 garden plots from the clover, spurge, purple deadnettle, and dollar weed.
My daughter chanting “I see London. I see France. I see daddy’s underpants” should have clued me to the fact my shirt was riding high and my pants were riding low. That evening, the sting on my lower back provided a warning from the early season sun. I won’t make that mistake again so easily.
The increasing sunlight and warmer temperatures of early spring have prompted the surviving broccoli to flower.
Right up until the real cold of winter set in, we were harvesting lettuce and broccoli. Both of these survived the mild winter and we are greeted with secondary broccoli shoots beginning to bloom.
In the heat of last year’s summer, we let the lettuce go to seed. As we weeded, we discovered my new lettuce shoots. The children were more than happy to poke their finger in the newly cultivated soil and organize homes for these sprouting plants in a single garden box. Afterwards, the kids would make sure each plant got a healthy sip of water straight from the rain barrel. The water is still frigid considering a week ago it was frozen. By the end of the weekend, we had an entire 6 foot by 4 foot garden plot packed with tender lettuce that came up on its own.
Katie and Emily take a break to admire the finely weeded lettuce bed.
In the photo, you’ll notice the empty chicken wire used to climb our snow peas. This bed was their home last year but we rotate crops between the three beds to help keep the soil healthy and thwart the insects.
You’ll also notice Katie and Emily are sitting on some garden soil we purchased to help top off the beds. It will all be in the garden soon enough.
At the corner of the house, you can see our two rain barrels which manage to stay full even though they only collect rain from a small overhang on a bump out from the kitchen. The barrel in the rear sit on top of two tiers of concrete block which elevates it enough to get our watering can beneath the spigot but doesn’t provide enough water pressure to use a house. The second barrel is destined for a home on the other side of the house.
Two out of three garden plots weeded.
After swinging the cultivator over and over, pulling gently to remove all the rooted weeds, we are winning. There are more food plants than weeds and it should be much easier to maintain the beds for the rest of the year.