Monday, May 31, 2010

Garden Report

Ate one strawberry yesterday. Gary picked four this morning. Looks like they'll be starting in heavy by the end of the week. Gary and I dug out walking space in the strawberry bed. A week or two ago it looked like there was plenty of space for your feet and your bottom while picking. But boy, the plants have really bushed out. Note for next year: much much bigger foot paths in the bed.

Just beginning to see some flowers on the raspberries.

Not one cilantro seed has germinated, neither the rows I planted mid-April or mid-May. I'm buying a fresher pack of seeds and trying again.

Planted cucumbers, green beans, hubbard squash, and carrots yesterday.

How hard should it be to turn on the sprinkler? C'mon. It's a sprinkler, for cryin' out loud. It's not rocket science. How come it can take me an hour to get that blasted thing turned on and working? Last week I gave up and bought a new one. While at the hardware store, I saw the same brand I bought late last summer (the one that's driving me bonkers). It has a life-time guarantee. So I thought I'd check with the company about replacing it. But first, I tried running the old sprinkler again. It ran perfectly. And again a couple of days later, it ran without a hitch. I returned the unused new one to the store. The next day, the sprinkler-with-a-demon decided to pull its stunts again. I cried. (PS: I finally threw it down in frustration, hoping that a good whack might knock something loose. Guess what? It did. I finally got the plants and seeds wet.)

Question: have y'all found hoeing to be as effective as yanking out the weeds by the roots? I think it's good to pull out the weeds. But if I can't keep up, better to hoe than to let the boogers keep growing, right? If I hoe, do I have to tackle the weeds two or three times as often as if I yank 'em out by the roots? Or does hoeing kill 'em good-&-dead?

3 comments:

  1. Hard to believe it's been nearly three years since I had a yard to work in, but as I recall, pulling weeds is more effective than hoeing, but hoeing (especially early on) is way better than not doing anything until you have a jungle on your hands.

    Thanks for sharing these garden reports; I'm enjoying them vicariously :)

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  2. Many things won't work until you threaten them with death - orchids, children, cars, and apparently, sprinklers! LOL.

    I pull weeds. I've never developed a good hoeing technique, so I sit on the ground, a small, sharp trowel in my right hand. I pop them out of the ground with the trowel (if necessary), and pull them up with my left hand. If I keep my bucket to my left, it goes pretty well. This is the first year in THREE that I have NOT had an injury that has kept me out of the garden for a significant chunk of the summer - I'm actually thrilled to be ABLE to weed this year!

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  3. Your garden sounds wonderful. My friends down here in Florida are starting to do a little gardening. More spices then actual vegetables or fruit.

    I remember the days of visiting my grandparents in Pennsylvania and picking the raspberries. Oh what fun. :) Black fingers and lips included!

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