Weeding the garden
As
I wrote last year, April
is weeding month on our farm. My graph below shows
how many beds need to be planted between February and October --- April
is clearly the calm before the storm, a chance to clean up
early-planted beds (or overwinterers, like this garlic) and get a head
start on the May rush.
Even though I started
weeding in earnest around the end of March, I already feel a bit
behind. The crazy spring heat made everything grow much faster
than normal, so the early spring beds all need to be weeded and mulched
ASAP.
I
don't thin much, but there is a little of that on the April agenda
too. I managed to overseed the breadseed
poppies (despite cutting back my seeding rates from last year) and
Swiss chard always needs to be played with since more than one plant
germinates from each "seed".
On the plus side, my
strawberries and garlic are in much better shape than they were last
spring --- a heavy fall mulch did its job. After a fiddly hour of
weeding around tiny seedlings, I like to give myself a break by ripping
out the few chickweed and dead nettle plants that came up in a garlic
bed. So satisfying to weed a whole bed in under a minute!
Maybe that's what all of my weeding jobs will be like in a decade when
my soil is rich, my mulch deep, and the weed seeds few.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I read your posts everyday and really enjoy your pictures. Last year I planted strawberry crowns in their own 4 by 8 foot bed and planted a blueberry bush against the fence line. Would you recommend putting fabric, plastic netting over each or a metal material over either to keep the birds out?? I haven't seen much about covering them from what i've read and watch on the internet/youtube.
Also I planted an asparagus bed last year, I have maybe a dozen plants that are 3 feet tall now. Do you think I should mulch them after weeding. And do you let them continue to grow all year not cutting them back? Thank you for any response you give. Reading about you two and looking at your pictures feels like I'm there enjoying the garden too. This will be my first year of completely taking care of my garden and I plant to enjoy it while learning from you do and many hours of youtube videos of gardening as well. Thanks again.
John --- I'd probably wait and see if you have bird problems before going to the hassle of putting up plastic netting. We've never needed it --- our birds have plenty of wild food to eat where they don't have to brave people and cats and dogs. And netting is a pretty good people deterrent, meaning that it makes you less likely to stroll past your berry patch and give them a tweak regularly.
I would definitely weed and mulch your asparagus. The vegetables hate competing with weeds, and it's tough to get perennial weeds out without harming the asparagus once the former are established. Definitely don't cut your asparagus back (until the fronds die back for the winter) during the establishment years.
Thanks for your kind words, and good luck with your garden!