March 17- 22

Last week I had a lot going on with the family so I forgot to record that on Mon or Tues I went out and planted more peas. Unlike what was stated in the last post I only got one square weeded and ready for planting.

This week I was going to go outside to plant more spring vegetables but had such bad allergies I stayed indoors most of the time. I did go out on our back deck and plant some peat pots with 3 kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, 3 kinds of peppers, watermelon, wee be little pumpkins, zucchini, butternut squash and some flowers. I brought them inside and have them downstairs under my grow light. I will turn the light on once they sprout. I wrote on each pot but will make a diagram soon just encase the marker is unreadable by the time the plants are big enough to plant outside.  I have to find my impatient seeds so I can also plant my hanging pots. That is my goal  this week since it needs to be done right away. I should be getting some allergy medicine next week to so I hope to feel up to going out this saturday and working some more.

Now I need to remember to water the plants that I have out there already so they don't die. It has been drier than usual this time of year  so my plants will need some extra TLC till the irrigation water gets turned on next month.

 Since I didn't get these posted last week here they are. This is before I weeded the raspberries.

 Here is my after .

Here is the square I prepared and planted chives in I forgot that I also transplanted a strawberry plant at the same time so I need to go and check on how it is doing. I didn't water it since this picture was taken. Hope it is alive.

March 3-9

This week was very busy for me outside the home. It was gorgeous weather all the days it wasn't raining. It is still really cold when it rains not freezing but cold. I should get out there anyway but didn't.

I did finally succeed this Saturday March 8th. It was wonderful to get out there and dig and flip my grass in hopes of having some control over grass this year. I also got some seeds from my chives and spread them in  a corner of one of my garden squares. I still need to mark it on my diagram before I forget. I also started pulling up plants around my tulips but then realized I wasn't 100 percent sure they were weeds. I will wait a few more weeks until I can identify them. I started to get the grass out of my raspberry patch. I dug and flipped my grassy walk way between garden squares and raspberries. I also prepared two squares for planting one of them I planted the chives in.

While out in my garden at the end of the day I felt like I didn't do much. Sitting here writing it sounds like  a lot, that is why I started to write more frequently. I have a hard time giving my self credit for the awesome work I do and only look at what remains to be done.

I was reminded by by dear husband to take pictures to attach. I will get some posted next week.

Feb 24- march 1

Things are starting to sprout and grow. We have had some very warm weather this week. I am finding my tulips growing. I would like to get some weeding done and more peas planted along with some lettuce possibly. It will have to wait for Saturday. I will report back here if I get it done.

Goals for next week would be planting seedlings. I have decided to draw diagrams to keep track of where I plant things so that I can remember. 

Dispose of Grass

I have been a fair weather gardener for a lot of years. Just last year I decided to become a more avid gardener. It was worth it. I think I have found a way to get the grass out once and for all without chemicals or vinegar. Now I will be able to enjoy my garden.

I tried spraying vinegar it works okay. It works great if you heat it up first so it burns the plant a few different ways. I found this to be more expensive than round up. It only worked if I drenched the plant or sprayed multiple times. It took a lot of vinegar and at almost 5 dollars a gallon was very pricey. Since I could get the same amount of round up for just a few dollars more and use half as much to get the same results.  I went with round up for  a while.  It still would not kill the grass all the way and had to be sprayed more than once. Also once my garden was planted it didn't help me since I couldn't spray close to the plants without killing them to.

Then in August last year I found a great solution. I never expected it to work so well. I have a border around my garden of just bare dirt to try and keep the grass at bay; or it was suppose to be bare dirt but a lot of grass had filled it in. I dug up the grass in that area and just flipped it over. I then chopped the clod with the side of the shovel to even the ground out again. It worked so well that even now there is no grass growing in that place. I then winterized part of my garden that way in the fall just before the freezing temperatures set in. I am very pleased with the results so far but it didn't work as well as the one I did in the heat of summer. It still is a lot better than if I had done nothing at all since I know what that looks like based on the other parts of my garden I didn't get done.

Now it is simple to just dig each square (4'x4') and flip the grass that is growing or take out the grass by the roots. I have the awful grass that sends out multiple runners and keeps popping up in unexpected places.

I think it worked because it confused the plants since the roots are in the air as well as the heat drying them out. Also since it was in a walk way I first did this, which has a high volume of foot traffic,  it made it too difficult for the grass to recover.