What did you do in your garden today?

[Mini Horses]

Nothing! Did nothing out there. Looked at the lot yesterday to see how bad with no garden this year but, did disc and raked. Couple mini mares were munching at some grass in there.

 

[tortoise]

Also nothing. Violin lessons and parenting a teen. No daylight left.

 

[tortoise]

DH and I briefly talked about if a barrier could prevent grass creeping in.

 

[Hinotori]

I remember helping my parents bury railroad ties around the garden as a kid. It did help keep the crabgrass out for a while. Then the stuff started growing under them. It's been 38 years now and even in their dry climate, the ties are almost gone. Parents can't bend now so gave up finally in the last few years.

 

[Britesea]

Still sick, so nothing physical getting down out there. What I did was Praise God The Rains Came!

 

[Messybun]

What I do every day, pick off caterpillars and harvest tomatoes! Yesterday I got the last few pears from the tree too.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Bindweed sounds awful!

It's horrible, every little segment of root can generate sprouts. Like a piece a half inch long.
Tilling it up is a recipe for disaster.


I spent one spring weekend with some small garden hand tools performing micro surgery following every little root segment. Still missed a few, but I kept at it over the summer and got it resolved.

 

[flowerbug]

It's horrible, every little segment of root can generate sprouts. Like a piece a half inch long.
Tilling it up is a recipe for disaster.


I spent one spring weekend with some small garden hand tools performing micro surgery following every little root segment. Still missed a few, but I kept at it over the summer and got it resolved.

you have to be persistent for sure. also helps to just smother the entire area with overlapping layers of cardboard and then put some mulch over the cardboard. often the cardboard will get eaten up by worms and you may need to replace it or add new layers after a year or two but it isn't nearly as much work to put down the cardboard and mulch as it is to try to get rid of such a persistent weed. after two years the only problems you will have in the mulch after that is if you have it too thin and the seeds in the soil seed bank begin to sprout. then you need to keep after those. the less the area is disturbed the better. tilling just moves the weed seeds around (and into the germination zone) so if you till be ready to keep weeding again on a regular schedule because you really don't want those weeds to ever get to the point where they are dropping more weed seeds again.

i've certainly learned the lesson with morning glories in general. i sure won't let those grow anywhere near a formal garden or a fence again. many years later we still have them sprouting in the pathways and along the fence and also in any neighboring gardens. not as many now but still some every year.

and of course other weeds too. Creeping Charlie is finally showing up again in the grassy spot out front where it was trying to take over. i spent a lot of time last year tracking down the threads of vines through the grass to remove as much as i could but now i see some is sprouting again. i'll go out for a bit today to get some out of there since that is probably the only mud-free space i have at the moment where i can do much good.

 

[FarmerJamie]

you have to be persistent for sure. also helps to just smother the entire area with overlapping layers of cardboard and then put some mulch over the cardboard. often the cardboard will get eaten up by worms and you may need to replace it or add new layers after a year or two but it isn't nearly as much work to put down the cardboard and mulch as it is to try to get rid of such a persistent weed. after two years the only problems you will have in the mulch after that is if you have it too thin and the seeds in the soil seed bank begin to sprout. then you need to keep after those. the less the area is disturbed the better. tilling just moves the weed seeds around (and into the germination zone) so if you till be ready to keep weeding again on a regular schedule because you really don't want those weeds to ever get to the point where they are dropping more weed seeds again.

i've certainly learned the lesson with morning glories in general. i sure won't let those grow anywhere near a formal garden or a fence again. many years later we still have them sprouting in the pathways and along the fence and also in any neighboring gardens. not as many now but still some every year.

and of course other weeds too. Creeping Charlie is finally showing up again in the grassy spot out front where it was trying to take over. i spent a lot of time last year tracking down the threads of vines through the grass to remove as much as i could but now i see some is sprouting again. i'll go out for a bit today to get some out of there since that is probably the only mud-free space i have at the moment where i can do much good.

The whole situation started because the then wife okayed removing garden soil to use as fill when we were having the patio built. The county road crew was cleaning ditches and had a dump truck full of dirt a few weeks later. Quick win solution, right? Lol

 

[Okiepan]

Ran a cultivator through it waiting to add some fertilizer.