Coming back from Captain’s Career Course was disheartening, because I had been absent from the garden for more than two weeks. I wasn’t able to get immediately back to it either, because of work, and more National Guarding. However, in the last week, with help from the two older girls, we have been making some dents in the much overdue weed maintenance.
Of course, pulling weeds out is one thing. Keeping them out is something else entirely.
This is part of the reason why all the paths in the garden are covered with wood chips.
But “covered” might be an understatement.
The paths adjacent to the rows that we threw up this year were really ditches, 18-30 inches deep.
We line the bottoms of these with cardboard or contractor’s paper (the stuff they roll out on the floor so they don’t scuff up your floor when they are working). This forms a weed barrier.
For example, see above.
Then we load wheelbarrows with free wood chips from chip drop.
(after she buried herself in wood chips she was not happy. She had wood chips in everything.
And we run these, one wheelbarrow at a time, and dump them in the path. At first they can be 2 1/2 feet deep, but they compress down to about 18 inches.
This may seem like overkill, but it serves two purposes. One is to suppress weeds, obviously, and for that you need bulk. Most people make the mistake of spreading their mulch too thin. Even average weeds can push their way through 4-6 inches of wood chips. Only bind weed pushes through 18 inches of it, and when it gets to the surface it is weak, and has a long, barely attached root that is easy to pull out.
Piles of woodchips also make great forts. I walked up to load more wood chips, and Seppi said, “Dad, I challenge you!” Then he started shaking his “cannon” and flung handfuls of rocks out in my direction.
Such a boy!
This was about three hours of work.
And about 40 wheelbarrow loads.
Got the whole thing covered in one morning. I can still get a lot done, if I get the time to do it, and I have help.
After standing in the sprinkler for a minute, she came over to me and complained, in a very hurt tone of voice, “Dada, I’m all wet!”
Time to order another chip drop.
After lunch we ground wheat.
This is excellent exercise for small muscles.
But they lack attention span. So far, Daddy does most of the grinding.
At least I have company.
It takes about 30 minutes to grind 5 cups of berries. Honestly, it would probably be faster without less “help” but that’s not really the point, is it.
The next day we tackled the garlic. We planted three varieties last year. I thought I wrote down what they were, but apparently I didn’t. Now we will never know. One of the varieties is ready, because the leaves are brown and it has fallen over.
One wheelbarrow load of garlic.
Now it needs to be dried for several weeks before it is braided and put in storage for the winter.
This will do until we head home.
Then on Tuesday the girls weeded the brassicas while I tackled the last bit of the spring weeds.
It was quite a sizeable chunk. It took four wheelbarrow loads to get it cleared.
The best part is that it had all dried out and gone to seed. That bed is just covered with weed seeds. It is going to be a nightmare for years.
The weeds we pulled out went into the compost bin. And now that the Spring weeding is finished, we can get started on the summer weeding!
I really need to make some time to turn that old pile from a couple months ago.
Little Farm in the Big City 