Weeding

Ok it is pretty easy to weed a garden before you plant things - if you put your mind to it and your back into it of course.

However, what do you do when you need to weed after the plants have gone in (and you have failed to mulch or keep weed free diligently every day)?

I had a feeling that my perfectionism would make me spend lots of time reading up about best practices rather than actually doing the job so I just got on it and did what felt right. I pulled out the biggest bits (which had scary thick stems and deep rooting - eek) then got a small hand fork and twisted and turned the soil to dislodge what I could. There is a chance that the weeds that have carelessly been left in the turned soil will just re-root. Morrissons dept manager extraordinaire, aka my boyfriend will be bringing home wood chip mulch. Morrissons have 2 for 1 on bags - I think he said they're about £2 or something. Jolly good!

Ok now is time to research.

I don't recommend typing "How to weed around plants" into Google - you'll get some wonderful info for a certain type of gardener - just not this one.

I tried again and I have found these tips:

* Give your garden a good water a little while beforehand (being careful not to splash the leaves of the plants you want to keep if it is sunny - to prevent leaf scorch) which will make the soil much easier to turn.
I have tried this the hard way. When we weeded the garden 3 weeks ago we did it with dry soil. Today I had watered the garden previously and it was much more fun. This is because you are suddenly dealing with soil rather than what feels like dirt.

* Weeds have a defence mechanism. This means that if you try and just pull out the weed it will break at the stem only which allows the roots to remain and thus it can grow again. Make sure you get it all.
I am confused, is this only weeds? All the plants that got damaged really badly stayed damaged (in the small animal trample-athalon) even though the roots remained undamaged in the earth. Here's hoping the mulch does it job here then as I have clearly half-finished my role.

* It is best to do weeding early on in the day so that any weeds left on top of the soil will dry out and wilt in the midday sun.

Aha - ok due to lack of sun in most of my garden this will not work...but this is hopeful anyway.

I read a few more pages and frankly weeding is a huge issue and not one that I am willing to cover fully. It is a subject that could clearly put off anyone who is still a fledging gardener like myself. I don't want to put myself off or anyone else. For example there is the Japanese knotweed (which I can't work out if I have or not) that actually has laws governing its removal etc. EEK!

Instead the above is just enough to be useful but to keep gardening lighthearted.

I had planned on preparing the garden better over winter and I can see why I should have done.

Again I'm not going to get too heavy with this but I am going to be better prepared next year. If I don't want to keep anything from this year I could:

* Lay a thick layer of newspaper, overlapping properly over all beds then cover in a thick layer of mulch. Apparently if you have a few months this allows the newspaper to break down whilst making it difficult for weeds to get what they need to grow. The mulch on top stops the garden from looking pants and keeps down the newspaper. I will need to do the same on the other side of the fence as that is from where most of the weeds are coming from as the other residents do not look after their section.

* In very early spring I will dump some wonderful manure all over to prepare the beds for growing again.

Or I could just continue with mulch and diligent weeding.

The tenacity of plants

In the last year that I have been attempting gardening, I've learnt one amazing thing which blows raspberries in the face of my perfectionism. Mother nature is tenacious.

te·na·cious/təˈnāSHəs/Adjective

1. Not readily letting go of, giving up, or separated from an object that one holds, a position, or a principle: "a tenacious grip".

2. Not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action: "a tenacious legend".  

You just have to look at weeds, no matter what you do, these will grow without too much assistance or help and wherever.

Weeds aside (that's a whole other post) you just have to consider some of my experiments. Last year after I had pricked/thinned out my tomatoes, I casually threw the excess seedlings onto a bed in the garden. A bed I had not turned or done anything with and some of the seedlings took hold. Granted they didn't amount to much but it amazed me anyhow. These seedlings were determined to grow.

This year, I undoubtedly left things too late to plant things out but then it was not as if the ground was warm enough for planting out. But my holiday beckoned and I was aware that my fledging plants would have more chance in the ground while I was away then in a pot. Everything went into the ground, cats and foxes and squirrels duly jumped over everything that night and the plants looked battered and beaten but still I asked a friend if she'd water the plants whilst we were away and... I came back to find out that most plants (despite being broken in torn in many places) had decided to live anyway.

Hoorah! Perfectionism - 0, Mother Nature - 1.

Excuses excuses

I seem to have many of them!

However I am going to be sorting out my garden soon as I need to get everything into the ground before we head off to see my family in Florida.

Moved all my plants into my mini-greenhouse when the builders turned up. Well my boyfriend did and I cam home to find everything looking very sorry for itself. I gave everything a slug of water and things are looking more perky yay!

Aldi have some great deals on bedding flowers etc including things like French Marigolds which are perfect to plant near herbs and veg as a way of keeping down pests naturally. I do have seeds for these but I am learning that I only have a small amount of patience with growing things from seed. The whole process of thinning out etc just gives me an opportunity to - you guessed it - make excuses.

This is why I've not planted anything into the ground yet as I must have companion planting in place as well or else pests will ruin everything. I think the worst pest in my garden might just be me. :)

Sunday shenanigans.

Well today I spent a much longer time then imagined cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. Over 3 hours later with only breaks for nature, coffee and buying tickets for a club night in the bank holiday weekend - I still haven't finished. However have managed to get Nathan to say he will do the bits I haven't done. Namely the weird smell under the sink and the weird smell in the tank cupboard and the making sense of the food cupboard.

 I now have a number of pots on my kitchen windowsill. I sat in front of the very good but very depressing "The Butterfly Effect", with a tray on my lap potting up all those seed kits I bought from the 99p/£1 shops. I have sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, chilies, basil. chives and curly parsley ready to go. The herb kit had some very weird dehydrated compost discs enclosed with which I was to add water to rehydrate. One blew up to 4 times its size almost immediately but the other two stayed very much disc shaped so I had to wait for them to soften then I got very dirty breaking it all up.

I'm not sure if the others will grow very well, in particular the tomatoes as I've apparently missed the window of opportunity. However, this is advice for when May is usually warmer than it was this year. From what I've read you're not supposed to take anything outside until it is warm enough so maybe my lateness won't matter this year.

Dragged the planters and baskets to a sunnier spot in the garden. I must say they're all looking much more full. They were looking quite pathetic with everything spaced out according to instruction and I was worried the the spacing instructions were for ground planting rather than container planting. You see all these really full and bountiful planters and baskets and I couldn't see how the hell what I had put together was going to take on a similar look when in bloom. (photos below taken at night

But things may work out yet.

The damaged plants are looking perky, scarred of course, but have resurrected themselves and are looking quite strong despite the obvious signs of previous distress (when I tried to push them through the lining.)

Still haven't quite managed the potato planting but the potatoes I'm chitting are well on their way but blimey do the sprouts look scary.

Found some overly chitted (is that the term) potatoes on top of the fridge. Each root was about 4 inches long. From what I can gather they won't do much if I try and plant them. They look like they're about to grow leaves actually. Little purple leaves. Hmmm. Might keep them and see what happens.

Why? How? Where? When?

I can tell you exactly what possessed me to start this blog. I started my first real attempt at gardening today and realised very quickly, that all those gardening books and projects sections of the B&Q catalogue... had lied. BIG TIME!

I've been making little comments on Facebook concerning my little journey up to this point and had been getting some encouraging or like-minded comments in return. I look back with just a hint of a sneer at my excitement of when my new garden, in my first owned home, has started to show its personality. How ecstatic I got when I realised that a previous owner has planted snowdrops and a lovely blue flower whose name I have currently forgotten. The joy and the wonder of the garden whose blah blah blah.

I now look at this garden wondering why the previous owners didn't leave me a manual and explanation as to what and why they had planted what they have. WHY? WHY? WHY? I have no idea what that green thing is in the pot or that lighter green leafy things is in the corner. Are they roses? are they weeds? that's kind of pretty but the leaves look well dodgy. GAH!

This is my little blog for all those keen gardeners like me that thought it may be easy, who watch their friends effortlessly maintain a garden that they've grown themselves, eat their friends home grown produce hearing how EASY* (see it's that word 'easy' again) it is and read books for first time gardeners that make it sound so simple... but when the time comes to proceed with all their built up enthusiasm, they find themselves covered in dirt. They're staring mournfully at a load of living organisms (or almost dead) depending on you to guide them into their full potential. With a finality of realising that - actually - the last few hours have been horrible.

Making you scream "I HATE GARDENING" at the top of your lungs and soon after hearing your neighbours windows shut with a bang to block out the sound of your crazy mumblings.

::cough:: maybe just me.

Or maybe this will just be for my friends to laugh and slap their forehead at my crap ability to do anything decent with not only the garden bits they have bought me but the rest that I got myself in my excitement.

* eas·y

adj. eas·i·er, eas·i·est

1. Capable of being accomplished or acquired with ease; posing no difficulty: an easy victory; an easy problem.

2. Requiring or exhibiting little effort or endeavor; undemanding: took the easy way out of her problems; wasn't satisfied with easy answers.

3. Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain: My mind was easy, knowing that I had done my best.

4.

a. Affording comfort or relief; soothing: soft light that was easy on the eyes.

b. Prosperous; well-off: easy living; easy circumstances.

5. Causing little hardship or distress: an easy penalty; a habit that isn't easy to give up.

6. Socially at ease: an easy, good-natured manner.

7.

a. Relaxed in attitude; easygoing: an easy disposition.

b. Not strict or severe; lenient: an easy teacher; easy standards.

8. Readily exploited, imposed on, or tricked: an easy mark; an easy victim.

9.

a. Not hurried or forced; moderate: an easy pace; an easy walk around the block.

b. Light; gentle: an easy tap on the shoulder.

10. Not steep or abrupt; gradual: an easy climb.

11. Economics

a. Less in demand and therefore readily obtainable: Commodities are easier this quarter.

b. Plentiful and therefore at low interest rates: easy money.

12. Promiscuous; loose.

adv.

1. Without haste or agitation: Relax and take it easy for a while.

2. With little effort; easily: success that came too easy.

3. In a restrained or moderate manner: Go easy on the butter.

4. Without much hardship or cost: got off easy with only a small fine.

Idiom:

easy as pie Informal

Capable of being accomplished or done with no difficulty.

As taken from http://www.thefreedictionary.com