2010 Resolution #2: Weeding

My second resolution from last year was "I will weed for 10 minutes a day so that I don't have to spend hours removing the jungle of weeds that develop around mid-August because I though it was too hot to weed in July."

When I was on top of my weeding

The vegetable garden of shame

I had mixed results on this resolution. I bought a Japanese garden hoe which was supersharp to make weeding easier.  I love it because it makes weeding so much faster.  However, you actually have to use it in order to keep the weeds at bay. I was really good in the spring at weeding. In July, when it got hot and I had to work all month, it was all over. The weeds took over by August and it was ugly. I couldn't face the jungle, so I hired my neighbor's granddaughter to weed for me.  She's good, fast, and knows what she's doing. She was totally worth it! 

Gardening Outside in January!

I took advantage of the balmy 40 degree weather to finish up some gardening that I didn't get around in the fall. I had 80 daffodil bulbs to plant. I have the terrible habit of waiting until December to plant bulbs. There's nothing like celebrating Christmas a week or so early by trying to dig holes during an ice storm and hoping that the ground doesn't get too hard to dig. Unfortunately, this year I was not able to participate in this annual celebration because we got an early snowstorm. I also know that trying to force the bulbs in pots in the spring doesn't work well for me because of the *#@!*&%*&#^ squirrels that like to dig into and destroy anything that I set on my front porch. I got lucky with this thaw that we have had for the last couple of days. I was able to plant the bulbs in my front and back yards. I also emptied all the pots in my plant grave yard, picked up litter out of my yard and alley, and disposed of previously frozen dog bombs. Finally, I collected some dirt in tubs so that I can mix it with coffee grounds, peat, and coir to make the soil mix for my seedlings this spring when I pot them up.

January's Garden To Do List

This month is about catching up on garden tasks that I put off and preparing for the new garden year.  I have already ordered my seeds from Jung's and Territorial Seed Company.  I also have some tomato seeds that I saved from my favorite varieties from last summer. I have a lot of extra seeds that I saved and packaged. I will mail them to Trudi at www.wintersown.org. She will redistribute them to gardeners for free.

In addition to ordering seeds, I need to plant two sacks of daffodil bulbs that are sitting on my clothes dryer.  I intended to plant them last month but we got an early snow. Nothing says "happy holidays" like standing out in the middle of the first ice storm of the year trying to plant daffodil bulbs before the ground becomes too frozen to dig. The weather forecast for this week suggests that we will have a couple of days with above freezing temperatures.  Maybe I can use this opportunity to plant the bulbs in my garden.  If not, I can always pot them up, put them in the garage, and force them in April.

Some clean up tasks are also on my agenda.  Since we had an early snow this year, I didn't get a chance to finish cleaning up my yard.  I need to tidy up the garden a bit and I definitely need to mulch the north side of my house.  On the north side, I don't get much sun, so very little grows there.  I have dogs and they like to run through this area, which I call the dog corridor, to get to the front part of the house.  They like to bark at people and other animals that like to walk on 'their' sidewalk.  Unfortunately, since there is no ground cover to speak of on the north side of the house, it becomes a muddy mess whenever there is a thaw.  I usually place large chunks of pinebark mulch to cover the ground on this side of the house.  The mulch keeps my dogs from loading up their fur with mud and tracking it into the house.  The mulch is thin, so I need to add a half dozen or so bags to cover the thin and bare spots.  Today looks like it might be a good day to get all of this done.

Garden of Shame

I've been on vacation. When I returned home, my garden was a mess (and still is).  I have A LOT of weeding to do. I also need to tie my blackberry canes to the fence and stake up various perennials. This morning, I managed to mow the lawn and weed the front part of my front lawn shade bed. The temperature is 95 degrees in the shade. When sweat was running into my eyes, I decided that I would weed my garden in short bursts of 20-30 minutes and only weed those sections of the garden that have some shade. Maybe I'll have it all weeded in a couple of days.

What a Hoe!

I loathe weeding.  I usually can only get through it with the help of Peter Frampton, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, and George Thorogood. [In reality, it often takes my sister coming over and making me weed.  Even then, I have a limited attention span for weeding.]

Last summer as I was hand weeding my beds and whining to my neighbor, Gaynell, she told me that I needed a Dutch hoe.  She brought hers over for me to try and I loved it.  It was a slim hand held hoe with a knife-sharp blade.  I went out that day and found one at Smith Hawkins.  Now, I'm a frugal person, so for me to buy something at SH means that I REALLY want something badly and can't find it anywhere else.  They called it a Japanese hoe.

This hoe slices through weeds like they're nothing.  It does a nice job of running about an inch under the surface of the soil so it does wonders with grass and plantain lilies.  I can even sharpen it in my electric knife sharpener.  Today, I used it to removed all the tiny weeds from my beds and it was wonderful.  I thought that others out there who hate weeding might find this tool useful.

Fertilizing and Overseeding the Lawn

I'm making a concerted effort to use as few chemicals in my garden and lawn as I can. About the only chemical that I used now is Roundup, and I only use that for poison ivy. I also used a chemical fertilizer with potassium this spring for my purple tomato seedlings because I needed a fast acting source of potassium.

I'm not a big fan of massive lawns. My garden space is larger than my lawn. I probably have about 250 square feet of lawn. For the last couple of years, I have done nothing to my lawn but mow it and sprinkle a couple of grass seeds in bare spots in the spring. It doesn't look very good. I don't expect it to be immaculate, but there are patches of dirt showing through and a lot of broad-leafed weeds, especially in the backyard. Consequently, I am going to experiment with organic lawn care this year. I'll share what I'm learning along the way and I will show you the results. I'm also hoping that I can get feedback and help on creating a nice lawn from people who read this blog.

My front yard looks better than my backyard.  A couple of years ago, my neighbor, the landscaper, installed a perennial bed for a client.  They didn't want the sod that she removed, so she brought it to me. It looks pretty good on the sunny side, but the shady side of my front yard has several patches of dirt.

Today was fertilizing and overseeding day.  To prepare for this day, I purchase mushroom compost, sun grass seed, and shade grass seed.  I also dug out all the weeds that I could find in the lawn except for clover, which helps to fix nitrogen into the soil.

First, I set my mower blade as low as I could and I mowed my grass.  I usually set the blade high so that the taller grass will shade out some of the weeds.  

Then, I adding about an inch of mushroom compost over the top of the lawn.  I created piled rows of compost across the lawn and spread the compost through the grass with the flat side of the rake.  After that, I used the pointy side of the rake to scratch the compost into the top of the soil.  My lawn soil has not been amended for years, so I really need to improve the quality of my soil and give the grass seed some fertile media in which to grow.

It's easier to spread the compost with the flat side of the rake.

Next, I sprinkled grass seed in the bare spots and gently raked them in.

Finally, I watered the lawn well to help the compost settle at the roots of the grass and give the grass seed  a moist environment for germination.

After the new grass grows to about 3 inches, I will mow it for the first time.  I will raise the blade high so that the taller grass will shade out weed seeds and make it more difficult for them to germinate.  I will also mulch the grass clippings into the lawn with my mulcher mower.

Saturday's To Do Wish List

Spread mushroom compost over front lawn and over seed the bare spots.

Plant strawberry plants in the strawberry pot.

Dig up the raspberries that have grown out of the bottom of the raspberry pots.

Weed.

What chores do you have on deck for this weekend?
Please post a link to your chore list or a project that you are working on in the box below so that we can go to your blog to see what you're up to.