"Wild Garlic"

It's everywhere, of course, as usual. We (some or all of my 5 younger siblings and I) used to make little burritos when we were kids - violet leaves, "hearts" (yellow woodsorrel), mulberries, and wild garlic. And then we grew up, and grew out of it.

But it is still edible, and it is still everywhere. And, in fact, there are recipes for it. Thinking of trying this early next week. We do most of our grocery shopping at a local butcher shop and a local farm market. Once every few weeks, we buy 10 lbs of chicken breast and freeze it in packs of two, then we thaw one out at the beginning of most weeks when whatever we've bought fresh the week before starts running out. So now I have just the recipe for next week's chicken! It helps that we also have farm fresh butter to use. :)

Now, Give Me A Hot, Sunny Day...

And we'll have a whole lotta solarizin' goin' on. It's all wire grass out there, and I want it dead before I extend my flower bed. From what I've read, solarizing is the best way to control wire grass. I think I may actually leave it there all summer, to bbe sure, although of course it's quite ugly to look at. For a good cause.

Cleansing Fire

Most of my yard waste gets composted, but this is a pile of invasive mulberries and wire grass.

Before And After

Pepper bed, before and after pulling 10,000 morning glory seedlings out. Photos in the wrong order, but it doesn't seem like the hassle of trying to figure out why or how to fix it. ;)

Weeds

Morning glory seedlings attempting to take over the pepper bed. Unfortunately, there are seeds planted to the right where there are no plants, which makes it a bit more difficult to weed.

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This is my pepper bed, which was completely weed-free less than 48 hours ago. I know that because I pulled every single weed by hand in the >100F weather we've been having. It's been drought-y for a few weeks now, so I haven't had as many weed issues as usual since I only water actual plants (mostly via soaker hose) and not entire beds (like with a sprinkler). Well, last night it finally rained, and this is what the weed situation looks like less than 12 hours later in my only un-mulched bed. Thousands of them, mostly baby morning glories. Guess I know what I'm doing during daylight tomorrow.

At least it rained, though, and I was finally able to give my soaker hoses a bit of a break.

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Cooperative Bugs

I love when the bugs munch on the weeds and leave the good plants alone - the holey leaves here are morning glories, and the ones that are left untouched are black raspberries. :)

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Weeds

I took 4 carts full like this out of my overgrown (former compost pile) bed and transferred them into the newer compost piles between the pine trees in the back.

Implements.

What the...? I have no idea how this got into my compost pile. We certainly don't keep it in the house, and I think everyone I know uses either the blue stuff or the yellow stuff. Can I still be considered organic? ;)

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Progress

I've been busy! This is what it looked like a few days ago.

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Veggies

Raised veggie beds + greenhouse. Don't ask me why there's a snow shovel out there, I have no idea. Pulled it out of one of the beds as I was weeding.

Pinto beans and peas. The board is for a hand/foot support while I'm working in the middle of the bed, to keep from falling in or having to step on my nicely aerated and tilled soil. The whisky barrels contain "invasive" plants, currently spearmint and lemon balm. I don't want them to take over an entire bed!

Veggie beds + greenhouse. Salvaged tiles in paths. Still not sure what I'll do for *around* the tiles - not sure the Corsican Mint is going to take.

More salvaged tiles in garden paths. This is the far left side of the garden, what was the most neglected for the past year or two, and what obviously still needs some work. The left hand bed is what I used to use for my compost pile, so it's still pretty out of control with weeds and some extra boards from bed construction.

Pea trellis in the foreground, compost piles in the background.

Future watermelon patch. Newly planted peach and pear trees in the background, but you can't really see them in the photo - if you look closely enough, you can see the mulch from two of them.

The veggie garden is almost completely weeded. Peas are up, their trellis is in, 6/8 raised beds have soaker hoses and mulch in. I pulled the soakers out of two of the beds so they could be roto-tilled, since they got a fair amount of foot traffic as the greenhouse roof was going on this spring. The blackberries and raspberries are booming, and I've been giving them a few hours of soaker hose moisture each day. I transplanted pinto beans into the same bed with the peas this afternoon and gave them a good soaking. He tilled up the patch that will be watermelons this year yesterday - I prefer raised beds, but he likes to grow a giant pumpkin each summer, and they're such sprawlers, they really can't be contained in a raised bed. So in order to maintain a 3 year crop rotation, we need three beds of that size. I'm not sure what we'll put in the 3rd one yet, since this is our first year with multiple beds of that size. Last summer he was living in Florida, so no giant pumpkin, and the year before, he lost his pumpkin when it was "only" 75 lbs to some sort of pest. I got the paths all raked (all the weeds pulled from the beds, and cut from the paths) and salvaged tiles upside down as stepping stones in most of them. Not bad for such a hot day.

Wire Grass + Granddaddy

I know, you're probably getting tired of frog pictures, but I find them fascinating.

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Scenery

Pergola, half a patio, outdoor furniture. Pond on far side.

Pond from far side, still lots of weeds (especially wire grass) to be pulled out.

Pond from near side, wiregrass and weeds in foreground, unfinished greenhouse in background.

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This Is How Bad It Was

The very worst of the neglect from last year. The bed on the left is what I used to use for my compost pile and it still hasn't been cleared out and leveled off since then. The bed on the right was left to its own devices last year.

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Veggie Garden Path

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Yard Work

Tools of the trade, cart full o' weeds, clematis and pansies, organic seed starting mix by the crateful, mystery alien plant, irises, pergola and windchimes, iris, blackberries, more irises, greenhouse, strawberry, plums, scottish broom, dianthus, heap of mulch (to do list), what's left of my beautiful rugosa rose, his and hers garden decor, basically a ramble around the yard. ;)

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Misc

One of the hordes of evil bunnies who inhabit my property, mystery (tree?) seedling, weedy plum tree bed.

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