it was so nice yesterday out working in the gardens.
most of the "bare dirt" gardens are now ready for spring planting which means i'm able to get working on the more wild gardens which are outside the fences.
my goal yesterday was to remove thistles and grasses in the north garden. i was hoping to get the thistles taken care of in one day, but after a closer inspection i can see that's going to be a bigger project of maybe another three or four days. i would have loved to have been able to just smother it all and then be able to poke some strawberries in there, but there are a bunch of daffodils and crocuses in there i'd like to move. and i don't like to use herbicides either so manual methods are what i have to use.
the thistles are deep rooted, luckily the north garden on top is a good loamy topsoil that was trucked in to go over and around the drain field for the septic system. it slopes down to grade (our mostly clay with some sand soil) from the front towards the back.
a few years ago i buried leaves and other garden debris under there and now as i'm tracking down thistle roots i'm also able to mix that material back into the garden soil. it looks exactly like peat moss with some larger stems in there. plenty of worms. i've been using turnips as a cover crop in this area as much as i can the past few years and have also grown onions, garlic, birdsfoot trefoil, clovers, rutabagas, beans, peas, chard and of course some strawberries too.
with being able to turn under most of the current cover crops i'll have space for some beans and other things in there too this season. the garden does not have a fence so most of what i plant will be with the idea that it is likely to be raided by animals. plenty of large deer tracks in the yard this year, rabbits all over and i saw at least one ground hog. pretty much any cover i can get going in there will be to distract the animals from getting all the strawberries and beans.
it rained pretty good last night and more rain is in the forecast for today. i'm not sure what we'll get. i won't be able to get back to the weeding efforts until that soaks in a little more.
it was so nice out there that when i was done with my digging for the day me and Mom sat out in the chairs and talked until nearly sundown and i had on nothin' but shorts and was perfectly comfy. :) not a single mosquito (shh! you didn't hear me say that!).
songbird