Where is the garden???

[Beekissed]

Why do I always think I don't mind weeding? My lonely little brain cell only seems to remember those warm spring days when the weeds are juveniles and slip right out of the ground, the sun is shining and a soft breeze blows the sounds of bird songs through the air.
When I KNOW the reality is big reseeding overgrown weeds on a hot still day when ten million other things need my attention.

I've never really enjoyed weeding, but this past fall when I was clearing the grasses and weeds I had let~intentionally, mind you~grown in one corner of this BTE garden just to see how that all went(had seen vids on YT about folks saying the biggest problem with the BTE garden was the encroachment of various stubborn joint grasses that spread through rhizomes, so I tried an experiment on my own). I can honestly say I had a blast weeding that BTE garden!! The grasses pulled up like a knife out of butter with a satisfying "rrrrrrip!" sound...I didn't have a single stubborn weed in that garden, even though they were well established and tightly matted into the ground. They had only grown in the area where the wood chips were very thin~maybe 2 in. deep at most, and none had grown where the wood chips were properly applied.

I think those folks in the vids complaining about the quack grass are like a lot of gardeners out there....they did something halfway, neglected their garden, then tried to blame the method for their own neglect and error.

I have family that do this every year...they get all psyched up about gardening, spend a lot of money on plants, mulch, amendments, etc. and they just rave about their gardens....until around the end of July. Then you don't hear much from them. When you ask about their harvest they are a little fuzzy about the details and then finally admit that the "weeds and bugs took over the garden" while they were busy with other things. All that work, all that planning, all that build up and then...fizzle. They grow some VERY lovely weeds from the expensive mushroom mulch they had trucked in and they wind up buying their veggies from the farm stand if they want to can any.

If I had the money, equipment, soil, resources and space they have I could feed a small community all year long on what I could grow but they mostly grow a lot of weeds. Every year it's the same. It's like watching that Groundhog Day movie....

 

[Smart Red]

I am past wanting the biggest garden I can (or can't) handle. I like my smaller raised bed garden. No mud. No crawling around on my knees. Easy to weed before, during, or after a rain without getting muddy feet. Besides those benefits, I can plant intensively and successively without redoing a whole garden bed.

Of course, enough mulch will do much the same thing to keep the mud at bay, but my ground is so soft that sinking into the beds is a real possibility. Still, I can imagine how frustrating it is for you, Bee, to watch valuable assets go to waste. More so since you are so careful with your own stewardship.

 

[Beekissed]

I think the most frustrating part is watching all the hard work they put into their gardens at the first of the season...they really do work hard at their gardens. Then, to let all that hard work go to waste is just painful for me to see. Just once I'd like to see them see it through to the end and realize something great from all that hard work, money and time they spent in the beginning.

I guess it's just hard for me to see them do the same thing over and over without changing the ending. I'd so love to just shake them, pull them by the hand out to the garden and work alongside them until we've restored order.... and get to see a huge harvest from all the work, time and money invested.

I see that all over, though, so my family are not isolated in these great beginnings/poor ending cycles. As I drive around, traveling to and fro, I always watch gardens...and it's startling just how many start all neat, lovely and well tended.....and end in waste high weeds, all the pathways and rows overgrown and people having to trample down the weeds to pick whatever is hiding in there.

 

[Smart Red]

I think it is easy to have "eyes bigger than your stomach" when it comes to planting the garden in the perfect weather of spring. That takes a week or two of effort. Then life pops up and for many that means too hot, too wet, too humid, too buggy, too hard to find time for the garden and now the weeds have taken over.

When Mom and Dad had their garden at our place, that's much of what they did. DH put up a sign stating that, "we are not responsible for the garden past this point" as our part of the garden was relatively neat and theirs a weed haven.

For us, this meant working in the garden almost all of every Saturday and Sunday as DH had 12 hour days at work and I was usually commuting between summer school 45 miles away with more then a full class load. It did get to the point of not being fun even though we both enjoyed gardening -- perhaps more guilt than not fun.

Throw in a tenant moving so we needed to clean and paint an apartment and there went a weekend in the garden with weeds that never took a weekend off.

Of course, way back then we didn't do mulching. Had wide rows for tilling with a lot of wasted space. Yes, it is so much easier now that we're both retired and able to spend a bit of time each day tending the garden.

 

[digitS']

Ah but, we exercise and run in circles, race up and down courts with balls, lift weights in endless repetition - &/or admire those who do.

Chase the almighty buck, beyond any reasonable need - &/or admire those who do.

Attend conventions, collect oddments, fill our spare time with near trivialities - &/or scratch our heads trying to reason out those who do.

If would-be gardeners can survive the guilt and face another season, they will likely have that chance. And, who among us can say that our seasons are flawless, our lifetimes without missteps? Making it one step beyond where they last stumbled is progress and suggests increasing chances that they will achieve all the steps to harvest.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Even when the weeds seem to have taken over there are veggies to be harvested. For me, it was the week of rain that always ended my neat, weed-free garden. Now, with raised beds, rain merely helps the baby weedlings grow within my eager reach.