1) "Dude," she said. "Your plants are getting suffocated by these weeds."
Followed by 2) "Dude! You need to get in there with a hoe!"
And that, as it turns out, was the problem: I've been weeding this thing by hand! Give me a hoe... a-ha! Now we have a level playing field! "Die!" I found myself muttering as I chopped and hacked at the green invaders with my new favorite garden tool. Seriously, I reminded myself of Bill Murray's groundskeeper character in Caddyshack. Except that at least his adversary had a brain, eyes, and ears. Mine were plants.
Anyway, after hacking a circle around every plant in the garden (along with removing every unwanted plant from a row of carrots and our raised beds), I really went after it -- with my weed wacker. Yes, I weed-wacked my vegetable garden. Which is to say, I cut the walking rows between beds down so we could at least get around. And then, with Ali's help, I did some fine tuning -- we were really able to get around the tomatoes, strawberries and squash plants.
When I first looked at the garden Saturday, I thought it was a lost cause. But I declared war in there this weekend, and it paid off. Yes, there were some casualties (there are in every war): I mistakenly pulled my last surviving pea plant and a strawberry, and I stepped on a squash plant. But in 48 hours our garden went from "lost" to "not bad" -- and that's a turn-around I can live with.
Update (July 8, 2012): Last weekend's efforts have made all the difference; the tomatoes, squashes, peppers, and carrots are so much more relaxed and happy. And the strawberries, which were slouchy and depressed, are standing tall, just drinking in sunlight. Great garden developments!
No comments:
Post a Comment