..it must be true…I planted weeds in my garden beds last fall. I thought I had just neglected to plant a cover crop but surely I lost my mind (definitely happens sometimes) and planted weeds. They seem to be springing up faster than we pull them. This puzzles me since we aren’t getting any rain and our cool mornings and comfortable afternoons have turned into scorchers by 8 am.
But, the good news is that we have a system down and we are making progress. We are trying to conquer one bed a day. Doesn’t sound like a lot but these are 3 1/2 feet wide and over 30 feet long. However, when it is 89 degrees out and it is only 9:00 am those beds grow….seriously! I am sure they are at least 5 feet wide and 90 feet long…has anyone ever done a study to see if wood, combined with dirt, reacts with heat to expand exponentially in width, length and amount of weeds contained therein. I assure you that this is happening daily in my garden.
Here is our system for recovering the “land that the weeds have eaten”. Pray for strength and cool mornings. Jeremy scuffle hoes a bed while the other boys do chores and I work in the greenhouse (which is also running at over 80 degrees in the early morning!). When Jeremy finishes one bed the boys and I start weeding that bed while he does his morning chores. (Another quick prayer for strength and cooler mornings). We add shredded leaves, compost and manure to the freshly weeded bed and Jeremy takes the BCS walk-behind tractor through the bed.
I LOVE the BCS! I must devote an entire blog to her blue beauty….perhaps as soon as we give her a name…..for all the back breaking work she does …well…she deserves a name and our highest respect! Ok…off of the rabbit trail and back to the weeds…(at this point I am reminding God that I have prayed fervently for cooler mornings!).
The BCS leaves the bed beautifully tilled and flat on top. Then Josiah, our resident Dripworks expert, places the drip tape in the bed according to what we are planning to plant in that bed. Elijah and I cover the drip tape while Jeremy and Josiah cut the plastic mulch for the bed. When Elijah and I are finished the plastic goes on and the bed is ready for planting. I plant in the evenings so that the plants don’t go into complete shock/stress at facing their first 12 hours under the scorching heat.
Although this sounds quick it does take several hours to whip out a bed…and boy are we whipped and dripping when done. I head in for a shower while the boys take a quick dip in the above ground pool that they purchased last year. Then it is time for school, for those children who have a little to finish up, inside chores and all of the other Mommy related things we women do each day.
So far we have herbs, onions, carrots, lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, a few tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, sweet corn, zucchini, and squash in the ground. Still to come pumpkins, winter squash (or I will be picking the fruit in the greenhouse!), beans, dried beans, peppers, hot peppers, tomatillas, canning tomatoes, more cherry and eating tomatoes, more lettuces, more melons, lots of herbs and flowers and a few other things.
We are so far behind this year but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel…..or is that just the beginning of another scorching morning….sigh….time to pray again!
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