Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Weeding is 3/4's Done





It rained most of the morning but I was NOT to be shut out all day and by afternoon I pulled on the mud boots and decided it was time to start weeding the garden.

All the seeds have sprouted and grown enough to make weeding safe so I locked the sheep out of the barn once I knew the rains were passed and began mucking out the old poop and urine infested hay and bedding. I clean the barn out every few days but it is generally just a light cleaning. After lambing season is over comes the time when really attempt to get down to old bare dirt. Usually I don't get to do this until Mid-June but this year lambing season was over much sooner than usual.

Since my actual garden is maybe 20% of it's normal size this year it won't take me 92 wheel barrow loads to cover the entire thing like it usually does. This means I am going to have to find a place for the extra as I clean. I haven't even started on the manure spreader restoration project yet so it looks like this year the extra is going to become fill for the swampy area behind the barn.

Anyway it also means I can mulch the garden area I do have thicker than usual too and that's just what I did. Between the old metal sheet roofing walkways and the thick mulch of trampled down barn waste I shouldn't have any weeds pushing out for the rest of the Summer now. Well except for the Johnson Grass and Morning Glory but I think this section of the garden is relatively free of those super weeds.

The rain gauge is full again and the extreme rain we been getting is having a bad effect on the Buckwheat too. I noticed the seedlings in the lower areas are turning yellow now and only about half the height of the other parts. I guess if it kills the little seedlings off I can always fill in with my extra seeds I have left.




In the better drained parts though the seedlings are now over taking all the weeds that were competing with them last week and I am even seeing the beginnings of bloom buds starting to pop up here and there. I noticed several bees already taking an interest in the young plants.

All the bee woodenware is finished now. I need to make another run to the lumber place and pick up some stuff to bang out a couple more tops but that's about it. Now if the ground would just dry out I can shuffle some hives around and get back to trying to capture a few more swarms this year.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!


4 comments:

  1. Looking good! We finally got some rain last night which should make both growing better and weeding easier. When the ground is dry and hard those weeds are impossible to pull out.

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    1. Leigh - Ya hard ground does make the weeding a real pain. Most of my garden I have amended with so much barn waste over the years that it doesn't get very hard these days. It's almost like working with potting soil now but it holds so much water now that my Buckwheat is getting drown in a few places.

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  2. I have considered leaving the weeds lately, thinking maybe they would drink up some of the water so my garden didn't have as much to deal with! ROFL.

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    1. Texan - That's actually a sound strategy. I have left the weeds numerous times when the ground was over wet and Sunnybrook has mentioned doing it as well. I had to go in after and mow them down then mulch over the stumps though but it did remove some of the over water pressure.

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