Waking Up from a Long Winter's Sleep

My garden is waking up from its long winter's sleep:

the lamb's ear is small and fuzzy,

the rudibeckia is peaking through the leaves, and

 of course, the weeds growing between the stones in my patio are the most prolific.

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! 

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.

Garden Fairy

I have the BEST sister, ever. Liz is a true garden fairy. She just spent the day with me weeding my backyard vegetable and flower beds. They were a weedy mess, but now they (almost) weed-free. I just didn't have time to weed the past two weeks and we've gotten a lot of rain.  

The weather was oppressive-hot and humid.  We were both soaking wet with sweat by the time we were finished. We had to take several cool down breaks to escape into the air-conditioned house and drink some iced tea to rehydrate. I wanted to post a photo of my sister weeding on this blog, but she threatened to beat me bloody if I posted a picture of her looking so dirty and sweaty [and let's just say that you all are lucky that there's no such thing as smell-o-vision!]

I still have about 8 feet of my perennial bed to weed and I need to weed between the plants in my vegetable garden.  I should have the all finished by the middle of next week if it doesn't rain too much.

Sometimes Evil Is Pretty

I REALLY loathe catalpa trees. They drop these long seed pods all over my yard and despite my best efforts to clean them all up before they can release their devil spawn, I pull thousands of catalpa babies out of my garden every year.  They're not even easy to pull.  If hand pulled, their bark pulls off like a glove and the trunks and roots remain.  I have to dig them out or pull them with pliers.

I lived in a Victorian era neighborhood and the Victorians really loved the catalpa. About 100 years ago, there was some sort of tree disease that spread through the neighborhood, killing many of the trees.  The neighbors living here at the time replaced the trees with catalpas. Now we have hundreds of mature catalpa trees all over our neighborhood, including my neighbor's backyard.

I hate to admit this, but I can see why the Victorians were so enamored with catalpa tress. I can only see their point of view for about two weeks a year when the catalpa are in bloom. This week, when I step out into my backyard, a sweet fragrance envelopes me.  I look up at the catalpa tree and see these orchid-like flowers and I look across my yard and see it blanketed with fallen flowers. 

Soon, however, the tree will form these long fruits that look like seed pods.  Then the fruits will burst open and their magical flying seeds will drift all over the neighborhood. The dried up fruits will litter my back yard. How can something so pretty be so invasive and messy?

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.

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.

Bah! Catalpa Trees and Poke Weed

Catalpa trees and poke weed make me nuts.  I pull thousands of catalpa seedings out of my garden.  You can't just pull them up with your hand. Their roots get a strong grip in the ground before they grow stems big enough for me to see.  I now garden with pliers in my back pocket.  I use them to grab the section of the stem right as it meets the ground.  A good hard yank with the pliers in that spot allows me to pull most of the catalpa seedlings without having to dig them out.

I live in a historical neighborhood.  One of the original requirements for building in the area was that the property owners had to plant trees on their properties.  Apparently, in the Victorian era catalpa trees were very popular.  The Victorian residents of the neighborhood planted them all through the neighborhood.  I don't have one, but my neighbor's catalpa tree hangs over my back yard.  They have lovely flowers, but they drop obnoxious seed pods that readily grow into catalpa seedlings. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out dozens of seedlings from my front yard, and I still see more that I will have to take care of soon.

What weeds or weedy plants make you crazy?

Gardening Resolutions

I commit many, many gardening sins.  This year, I will have better garden behavior.  In recognition of the first warm garden days of the year, here's a list of what I resolve to do better:

1.  I will no longer grow plants from seeds only to see them languish, unplanted, on the side of my house in what has become known as the plant graveyard.

My plant grave yard

2.  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.
3.  I will save heirloom seeds from my annuals, perennials, vegetables, fruits, and herbs.  I will use these seeds next year and I will trade them with other gardeners so that I can get new varieties.
4.  I will not try to grow any more plants that are not suited for my garden.  This list includes anything that needs a lot of moisture, acid, etc (with the exception of the blueberries that I am growing in containers).  I know what my limitations are and I'm really not going to put in all that extra effort to nurse a marginal plant along.
5.  I will follow my mother's 'three years and you're out' rule.  If a plant doesn't perform well (or show promise) after being in my yard for three years, then it gets yanked and replaced with something that will have a chance of thriving.
6.  I will label all my tomatoes and herbs so that I will know which variety they are so that I can save their seeds.
7.  I will save household containers to start seeds in next year.
8.  I will try to propagate as many plants as I can.  I will only purchase plants if I can't propagate them.
9.  I will only buy plants if I already have the hole dug before I go to the store.
10.  I will take many photos and blog about my garden.