Garden Dog

One of the questions I get asked a lot about organic gardening is how I control weeds. The short answer… I pull them out. I find it therapeutic sitting in the garden on a warm sunny day, slowly making my way through the rows pulling weeds. Listening to the birds and the frogs singing, the occasional lawn mower or chainsaw in the distance…and of course the house behind us that always has KQRS playing. Our garden isn’t that big, and it only takes 10 minutes or so to get through an entire row.

Weeded Rows

The trick is to keep up on it – if you let things get out of hand, you’re going to end up with a nightmare. Last summer I ended up putting down sheets of black plastic in the rows to control the crabgrass, which had gotten really bad by mid-summer.

Also, I usually put down quite a bit of mulch once everything is planted. That helps a lot with weed control. I’m hoping to start mulching with grass clippings next week, after most of the plants are in.

This weekend is gorgeous, and the forecast looks to be warm for the next week so I decided to start seeding our summer crops today. Tomorrow we’re heading up to Gordon’s Greenhouse to pick up some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. I decided not to mess with shelves and fluorescent lighting this year, so unfortunately we don’t have any of our own transplants. (I did start a few out on the deck when the weather was nice in March, but they never progressed to anything useful). I’m kind of sad to be missing some of our tomato and pepper favorites this year, but the greenhouse up the road has a terrific selection of heirloom veggies. Maybe we’ll end up finding something exciting and new!

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