Weeds!

I suppose no gardener is immune from weeds. Mine are quite healthy! This morning I worked about two hours in the yard, edging, trimming, but mostly weeding!  In the early to mid morning, it was pleasant work. Why I put it off so long I can’t really say.

My three favorite weed controls: mulch (straw and small cedar bark or shredded bark are my choices), my husband who weeds better than I do!, and newsprint. I’ve used newsprint before, 4 layers thick, overlapped 8”, and it does a great job of suffocating grass and weeds if covered with a generous topping of cedar bark--works especially well in the fall, as in when turning a section of grass into a flowerbed in the next season.. The newsprint will decay, though, and if uncovered, will litter your yard as it decays.

This year we tried getting a free roll of newsprint ends from where else, The Daily Sentinel, and we spread it three layers thick where we were planting our garden. Then we cut 3” round holes, roughly, where we planted marigolds or zucchini seeds, etc. or we left a 6” wide swatch for planting peas or beans. The jury is still out. Because we planted in furrows it was/ is hard to get the mulch to stay in place on the slopes of the furrows. So some paper shows. But, the plus side—it did keep the weeds very limited around our cucumbers and squash and tomato plants for the first six weeks of gardening. And is still somewhat effective.   Here you see a cucumber coming up-
 

The cedar bark does keep the moisture in the soil well, between waterings.  And the newsprint keeps light from weeds at least for awhile.  This is the" as is" view--and some paper shows!

Anyway, here’s my pulled weeds from this morning, headed via wheelbarrow to my shaded compost pile—literally a pile between a lilac and an evergreen. I add fresh vegetable and fruit trimmings from the kitchen, weeds, some grass clippings at times, overripe fruits and vegetables (or forgotten items from the vegetable bin).

Getting the weeds to the compost pile--what a rewarding feeling!

A mum and iris still on the to-be-weeded list!