I finally got back to the garden. I was frustrated with all the grass and no seedlings, so I avoided it for awhile. (That and it rained a lot last week!) Saturday I sprayed all the grass and weeds in and around the garden with Round Up. I know, I know, it's bad to use chemicals in the garden and I didn't want to, but without a rototiller, I didn't see how I was ever going to get all that grass out. The grass and weeds from around the fence were also creeping in. The package said the product is only active in the plant, not in the soil and it can be replanted in 3 days. Today was day 3. The grasses and weeds were definately at least half dead. I decided I would get the hoe out today after work and see what damage I could do. Summer temperatures arrived today, so it was too hot to go out until around 8:00. I hoed about 40% of the garden twice and then raked the grass into a pile. There is still some grass in there, but hopefully the Round Up is still at work on those. Tomorrow evening I hope to hoe the other 60%. Wednesday evening I am giving a training on early literacy activities, so I won't be able to get out that night. I would like to get some more done Thursday evening and possibly get some things in the ground before Friday evening.
I am really fighting a battle with those darn tent worms! They of course made tents in our large trees out back, but what has frustrated me is that the caterpillars crawled up to my new fruit trees and bushes! I have to go out there everyday and pick off the caterpillars and squish them on the ground. I am finding 4-6 caterpillars each day. That is a lot on my few tiny plants! I wonder how much longer they will be around. Hopefully not too much longer--I noticed the ones I squished today were getting pretty long. I wonder how people wil larger trees or larger numbers of fruit bushes handle this--I am sure they don't go out everyday and search every inch for caterpillars to squish!
Hopefully your gardens are doing better than mine! I still have high hopes, though! (and sore forearms!)
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Start spraying the fruit trees and think about building raised beds, or rather that last part depends on how large you'd want the garden and how much you're willing to sink into it, but you'd line the beds with weed cloth so you'd get no weeds!
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