Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Bags, Weeds and Roses

From my garden diary in June:

The sun and rain has made the rose bushes all bloom like crazy.

It has also made a zillion weeds start growing in my garden. I have a weed control plan and need to put it into action today.


Meanwhile, the hens enjoy napping ON the porch, in the sun.



Mavis actually let me take a few photos in front of the weeds and roses.
She has always been a bit camera phobic, so her sitting and looking at me while I snapped the photo, was a real treat.



My farm friends gave me 50 empty grain bags so I could cover my garden with them and some straw so I could keep the weeds down.

My goal is to keep weeding to a bare minimum this year as I am busy with the Community Garden,  the 250th celebrations and organizing a Tour D' Coop. 

 

Mavis again laid down for a quick photo.
Must be a special day.


The hens came and pecked at the few grains left in the bags after I cut them in half.



 I have another 50 grain bags in the garage to add to the pile.

I need a lot to cover the garden.

I spent an hour opening the bags up and splitting them in half so they will lay flat on the garden.


The 6 bales of straw arrived a few hours later and of course the flock came by to check them out.




As they inspected each bale I went to collect some eggs.

I was pleasantly surprised to find 5 today.


There is nothing better than eating fresh eggs!


I laid down the grain bags along my paths in the garden as well as some newspapers around some of the veggie plants.


 Looks a little like the Fidelity path from the commercial....


Then I dragged a bale of straw out to the garden and proceeded to cover the grain bags with it.


It didn't take long before I had most of the "bag paths" covered with straw.



I am still working on it.  The rain came that afternoon and mashed the straw down perfectly.

What kind of weed control are you using this year in your gardens?
~

5 comments:

  1. First, I love your header!

    And this is ingenius. Or would that be genius? Anyway, I only have 4 tomato plants so weeding is not really on my list.

    Thanks so much for joining in this week!

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  2. a very good day for the hens. no weed control here and they are about to take me over!

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  3. Wow, that looks really nice and should help with the weeds but, shoot, that stuff would just blow away here! LOL!!

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  4. those hens are as curious as my cats!

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  5. Old hay, same as I've used for 20 years. I don't like straw, as it rots too fast, and is VERY slippery when wet.

    If I put down solid leaves of hay (at least 4" thick), I have no weed problems, it will last well into the fall from spring, keeps the soil moisture steady, adds organic matter, and feeds my zillions of worms. The secret is using enough hay.

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