Tag Archives: Weeding

Little and often they do say

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The weather turned out to be good again this morning so we decided to do another short stint of weeding out the back. We did it at a council worker’s “job and finish” speed as we honestly don’t know when we’ll be able to get out there again what with the weather and also returning to work tomorrow.

We managed to collect up a lot of leaves from the path so per the advice given to us by the people who supplied us with the giant garlic we’re using the leaves as mulch in the raised beds as we haven’t got 4″ of grass clippings as suggested. Reckon we’ll be okay with leaves? We’ll find out in the spring.

We also took a lot of rotting leaves off the netting over the pond that was being weighed down and going into the water. We’re sure that rotting leaves ain’t that good for the pond (have a look here why they’re no good) and it is looking a lot clearer now. Roll on the next time we can get out the back!

This post was written whilst listening to this excellent collection of hip-hop instrumentals by N&L from Norway from 2015. Some good tunes here!

Does dry January actually start today?

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Happy New Year and best wishes for 2023 to all from us at Weeds!

It wasn’t raining this morning for once so we did a little bit in the garden quite early on (in a sort of a mean as you go on for the rest of the year type thing). It seemed like an age since we were last out there and we did the old council trick of starting nearest the house and working towards the end of the garden. We only spent just over an hour but as you know we are from the “little and often” school, remember any time you spend out there now will save you bags of time in the spring.

We discovered things we’d forgotten about that like this brassica (below) that’s still going strong, the giant garlics we put in last month are starting to sprout and we even moved a couple of plants about. A question that was on our minds was why didn’t any of the dahlias we have in didn’t flower this year? Anyway may you all have a good 2023 and do get back out there if you get a chance!

Operation Foxglove

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It was another lovely weekend so we did a bit of tipping around with a hoe around the bed nearest the house that have the foxgloves in them. We were given three plants a couple of years ago and they’ve spread like wildfire. There’s some dahlias in there that still haven’t sprouted yet and we wonder if we’re either not patient enough or something’s wrong with them.

The bed of the right hand side had a tidy up too. It’s looks a million times better and we can actually see what we have in there now. A few of the plants were bought on special offer on QVC off the telly last year. We were told they supposedly do a great gardening show on there on a Sunday morning.

As for the madness that is the compost heap, the stuff in there is breaking down a lot quicker than the dalek and it’s hell of a lot easier the get a fork in for a quick mix too.

Trouble is at the moment there’s a lot of flies about there meaning it’s a bit unbalanced. There’s a lot more of the “green” stuff in there and needs a bit more of the “browns” so in the next few days we’ll give it a good mix and throw in some cardboard and egg boxes. It’s all kicking off in the garden now!

The path to enlightenment

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We don’t usually give it large regarding what we’ve done in the garden but with Sunday’s great weather (granted it was on and off but when it was “on” it was great) we made a bit of progress with a lot of outstanding jobs and we’re well chuffed!

The bed on the right-hand side had gone out of control, the comfrey was choking everything (including the dahlias, red hot poker and even the rosemary) and the path was fast disappearing. On the pic above after the hard graft you can now see a couple of the sunflowers, one being nearly 7ft high! We’re suckers for those adverts in E-bay that say “Giant skyscraper Sunflowers that will reach 20 ft at least, as grown in Jack and the Beanstalk” and that sort of thing.

Even the anarchy that is the veg bed at the bottom of the garden was tidied up (a bit). This is it post hoeing and de-weeded. There’s broad beans, dwarf french beans, runner beans, beetroot and even a courgette.

We’ve even had a harvest, the above is some spuds we got from Shannon’s earlier this year. We’ve been chomping at the bit to dig them up and this is the first time a bit of patience has paid off (they are a decent size for once). The cherry tomatoes we got from them too from seed are starting to ripen too and the plants are just not stopping so a bit of nipping out of the top had to be done. It’s good this gardening lark (when it goes well!)

 

 

Don’t free the weed(s)!

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Yesterday I spent an hour or so clearing a small patch of bindweed along the side of the garden in preparation for some more raised beds. It’s the area behind the broad beans, tomatoes and the mini plum tree (below). God only knows how long it will keep bindweed free as it’s horrible stuff and I can see myself pulling it out on a daily basis.

I mean does anyone really like weeding? In Bob Flowerdew’s book on compost he thinks of the plants he pulls up as more material to go onto the compost heap which gets him through it. A good way of looking at it, I reckon.

I remember years ago on a gardening course with the council, (and boy did they like doing courses there! As a workmate once said to me “the more courses you go on, the less real work you have to do, so sign up for everything!”) the teacher’s definition of a weed was a plant growing in the wrong place. She gave an example that a rose could technically be a weed if it was growing on a football pitch for instance.

I got stuck into the area with a hand trowel while on me knees (on an Sainbury’s own range kneeling pad, well worth the couple of quid it cost). If there’s anything that self seeded like Poppies and Calendulas I always transplant them elsewhere in the garden. Nettle leaves I now save in a bucket where I will later add comfrey and borage leaves to make a top plant feed (another Flowerdew tip, as he says adding the other leaves to the comfrey makes for a better all-round feed). Any weeds with seed heads I stick in a bucket of water to rot before chucking the horrible liquid on the heap later and any sticks get put on top of the ever growing mountain of wood to burn (another job I’ll get around to one day). Everything else goes straight on the heap.

Also I took some time to “thin out” a row of lettuces in the salad bed, giving the remaining plants more space to grow and at the same time providing us with salad for tea. Waste not want not, eh?