Overview of the garden. Please ignore the goat butt, I do NOT let my goat run around lose after milking.
The weeds are totally out of control! They are taller than the corn. This is so embarrassing.
I bought a hoe after much argument with hubby about it. Here is part of it hoed. It is hard, slow work, but I'm making progress. I've got about twice this amount done so far. I'd be further along, but hubby got hurt over the weekend and we laid grass seed that needs to get covered with dirt. So, I've been spending every evening this week spreading dirt instead of hoeing the garden. And it is too hot during the day to do anything outside. We are getting into the 90s during the day.
The potatoes are doing well though. As are the sweet potatoes. I've got them both growing in potato bags.
The tomatoes are also doing well. They all have baby tomatoes and lots of flowers. I also have lots of ladybugs on my tomatoes. I don't know if that is good or bad.
Please don't look at the following picture! Mom wanted an update on the garlic bed she helped me plant in November. I'm ashamed to say it has become a weed bed. They seemed to grow overnight! And now I have no idea if there is any garlic even in there anymore.
20 comments:
Goat butt? I'm more of a chicken butt type person....LOL
And ladybugs are good, though not when there are so many, they are crawling up the walls!!
Things are growing well-you must keep us updated on the potato growing bags--that looks like a great idea-no digging...
Take care
Sue
I know about the weeds. I still haven't had time to get back to my weeding here. You are right, it is sooo hot. We have been around 95 degrees lately.
You are doing great. You don't have to do it all this year. It takes time to get things going your way. You have accomplished so much this year.
Great job!
Pam
Tomatoes look good, I wish mine were that far along. Although, with the heat, they sure do grow fast. Lady bugs are great to have in the garden!
Ron
It must feel so different to have your huge garden. I think you shouldn't feel bad about the weeds, though. First off, some of them are probably edible - at least you could probably feed them to the animals and save on some feed ;). And second, if it makes you feel any better, I don't have half the garden you do, and I still battle the weeds :).
Phew! Sure sounds HOT down there. I remember that ... vaguely. We're still having temps in the 50s and 60s. Brrr ;).
Hmmm...I don't see anything that LOOKS like garlic...
Weeds happen. I took the weedeater out to the garden today and went in between rows very carefully. It helped a bunch... And like everybody said, Ladybugs are supposed to be good. They are said to eat bad insects like aphids. My father-in-law loaned me his "favorite hoe of all time" and I have to say it works better than any other hoe I have used before. It has a pointed head, kind of trowel shaped. You can turn it to the side and use it kind of like a traditional hoe too... Good luck in there, and don't feel bad, you're braver than I am posting pictures of your garden on your blog ;)
Hello, I had a problem with always being in the weeds in the garden and puchased a hoe. A Cheap hoe. I learned quickly that I needed to go back to the store and invest in a good Hoe....smile.....I did so getting one with a longer handle and good wieght and I leave my Hoe in the garden and everytime I go out I hoe a few weeds and seems to have the weeds under control. Weeds aren't all bad as many have roots that bring nutrients back up to the top soil. " A weed is a plant whose virtue has not yet been discovered". I forget where I read that. Wendy is correct many weeds are edible. I wish I had some dandelion weeds in my yard. Lady Bugs are good. They eat aphids. I would google "Lady Bugs" so that you can show your son what the lady bug larvae look like. Pretty cool as they look like little alligators.
If you have had any rain at all, we have had bunches here, the weeds seems to double and triple up overnight. I do not have a full sized garden this year, working on that for next year, but my "patch" of flowers and tomato plants needs attention right away, and lately almost daily. Good luck with catching up with the determined weeds! Your garden plants look great.
I know ladybugs are good, but I have SOOO many, I figure I must have an awful aphid problem too.
Wendy, amazingly with all those weeds, we only actually have 3 different types and a bunch of grass. One of the weeds is covered in prickers and I wouldn't eat it if you paid me. I'm not sure what the other 2 are, I'll have to look them up or post pictures of them. We do have tons of dandelions in the yard, but the goats eat those.
Melanie - me either, hence the shame.
Jason, I've been debating using the weedeater but we have a super powered professional one and hubby said it was too risky to take around the plants. He accidentally cut down our apple tree with it!
Barbara - I have a cheap hoe. I leave it in the garden too and do 15 minutes at a time a few times a day. I need to get a good hoe, I have to keep putting the head back on my cheap one.
I have some guineas to sell you! lol
Those pesky weeds will get you every time! When I was growing up we always had a large garden and it seemed all I ever did all summer was pull weeds. Wish flowers grew as fast and plentiful as weeds. As for the garlic bed, if the garlic didn't grow because the weeds took over you and I can always plant another when we come and visit in the Fall. You are so lucky to have tomatoes growing already. At least up here in the cold North my tomato plant is growing. If it ever warms up I may get tomatoes.
Christy, you're not in New England anymore! LOL! Weeds are *incredible* in the South, as are the bugs. I remember trying to keep up with them in KY, but some years just giving up and giving in to them both. Just keep hoeing along and you'll be fine. :-)
I have it easy here in Utah, since if it doesn't get watered it doesn't grow!
whew, temps in the 90's? I'd melt. Here in the NC Appalachians, we rarely get into the 80's but we pay for delightful summers in the wintertime.
I'm frustrated with the milker now. I'be tried it on all 4 does. I can begin to hand milk, put on the milker, get good suction, no milk, will go right back to hand milking with no trouble. Don't know why it doesn't work on my girls.
Get those lamb's quarters pulled girl before they go to seed! Establishing a new garden is challenging the first few years because you're stirring up all the weed seeds in the soil. I think it was this month's Acres that had a good article about weeding the soil not the crops.
My favorite tool is a stirrup hoe. It does an amazing job, even in tough soil. Unfortunately, I planted my onions too close together to use it on them, which is why those rows are such a mess in my garden. I was trying to take advantage and do a double row on each drip tape. Bad plan, it turns out.
I'm still trying to turn over the weed seeds in my market garden. One trick organic gardeners will use is to actually sprout a crop of weed seeds and till them under before planting the real crop. The places I did that look way better than the early crops like onions that I put in without doing a second till. I'm not thrilled about multiple tillings, but in the early years I think it's a necessary evil.
Well, weeds are a sign of a green thumb of sorts I guess...
Either way, there is food in there!
Danielle, thanks for the ideas. I'll have to get a stirrup hoe, I'v heard good things about them. Right now our ground is rock hard, so I'm just cutting the weeds back with the hoe, not actually getting them out of the ground. I hope we get a good rain soon so the ground will be soft again.
At least lambs quarter is edible. Someone was actually selling it at the farm market! So, I don't have weeks, I'm cultivating greens! LOL.
Whoooee! You don't have to remind me of how hot those southern summer can get....add in the humidity and you just never want to live the house and A/C.
Reminds me of just before we moved to South Carolina over 10 years ago. We asked the real estate agent about bike and hiking trails and playgrounds nearby our new rental home...and she laughed and said, "You're kidding, right? Noone goes outside much during the summer" lol!
It's true, as soon as I'd walk outside, I'd be soaked in sweat and the skeeters would find me DURING THE DAY! I'm used to skeeters only coming out at dusk and nighttime. Those buggers traveled in packs like a bunch of blood sucking wolves.
Oh....the bugs...don't remind me. lol!
I think you're lucky even if you just have a garden with stuff growing in it. I wish I could have planted a garden this year, too. But at least my peaches and apples are producing fruit this year. I'm sure grateful for that. :)
Sure hope Mark's doing better now??
Take it easy, Christy, and drink plenty of fluids during the day while you're working outside and try to plan most of your hard work for early morning or evenings. Summers in the South can be brutal.
~Lisa
I actually gave my CSA baby lamb's quarters one week this year. Figured I had so many that I might as well get a harvest out of it. They were pretty tasty sauteed up with a little olive oil and garlic.
A couple years ago I gave them purslane, another weed that gets stirred up in newly cultivated soil. I harvested it so much that I haven't had much since. Wish I could say the same about the lamb's quarters.
Don't be embarrassed! It is nice to see that all of us are facing the same weeds from hades problems!
Danielle, we don't have any purslane amazingly. We had tons of it in Delaware. I guess it is a more northern weed. We have one I haven't identified yet, I'll have to post a picture.
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