All weeded out

Last week was just dreadful - cold, windy and wet.  Temperatures weren't too low, if its not windy, that is, but most days, the sun was behind the clouds, peeking out only for a few hours in the afternoon. But what's dreadful for us, is actually good for the plants in our garden.  Since I couldn't go to the garden during such wet and windy weather, I could only imagine how beautifully the plants would grow.  I also had a very strong feeling that not only our cultivated plants would do well in such weather.  The weeds would thrive too.

The last time I was in the garden, I was very pleased with myself.  My vegetable beds were clear of weeds.  But I wasn't able to go back there because of the rain and every day, I worried about the state of our garden.  When the weather finally cleared up last Saturday, Pete and I set off for the garden early.  My heart sank.  Weeds were growing wild and competing with our precious plants.  A row of dandelions had taken hold of the back of the garden where I planted lavender.  Worse, the flowers have all gone to seed and I know that their amazingly mobile, durable and plentiful seeds would have been scattered all over our garden.

I checked all our vegetable beds and I could see that I had a couple of hours of hard work ahead.  Weeds were growing everywhere - tiny ones that looked like they have just started germinating, those that are a couple of cm tall and those fast-growing vines and grass.  The carrot bed was almost over-ran by the tiny ones and I knew I had to spend a lot of time there since they were growing among the slow-growing carrots.  

I had to work methodically and be focused or else I'd just be overcome by a sense of hopelessness.  I started with the smaller vegetable beds and where the weeds are bigger so I could take out my frustrations at them and rip them up in anger.  That's quite a handy technique and soon I filled my pail with weeds.  I yanked out about 3 pails' worth of weeds from the potato bed.  And I still wasn't done there.  I had to leave some for another day since they were a bit difficult to get to.  

Then I moved on to the pumpkin patch.  There weren't too many weeds there.  The winter pumpkin are doing very well.  The leaves are big and green and they look healthy.  The butternut squash didn't look too good.  The bottom leaves looked a bit white and frost-bitten and are still small.  Hopefully they would get healthier when the weather gets warmer.  I had been cultivating two more pumpkin and cucumber seedlings.  After clearing the weeds, I planted them.

The next job was weeding the carrot bed.  These weeds were a pain.  They were tiny and very, very numerous.  I suspected they were tiny dandelions in the making.  I sat there and painstakingly plucked each and every baby weed.  I didn't know how long I was there but I kept at it until I was aware that my body was aching.  I took a break and looked at the rest of the garden.

I got another heartbreak when I went to the pea and bean bed.  The pea plants that were growing so well the last time I saw them were barely peeking from above the planter.  The rabbits had nibbled at them and so instead of tall, strong plants were all short and stunted.  Damn rabbits!  They didn't touch the beans or other plants.  The choosy monsters aimed for our pea plants instead.  Sigh. 

Pete went to look for holes where they would have broken into and found a big one over at his mum's side.  We had some chicken wire left and used that to block off the hole.  Hopefully that would work or else I would have to give up on planting peas.

It wasn't all bad news that day.  We found that the strawberries are growing well.  The rhubarb too.  Also, the flower seeds that I planted are growing well too and weeds have largely stayed away from that bed.  Also, surprisingly, lettuces have started growing where we planted them last year!  We haven't planted anything at that spot but I could clearly see the familiar leaves popping out from the ground.  There was also some zucchini plants growing at last year's bed too!  Amazing.

That day, we spent three hours in all, weeding and watering and repairing the fences and wind-shelter.  Even then, I could finish getting rid of all the weeds.  When we reached home, we discovered Pete's neck was sunburnt and my entire left side of my body was aching because I was leaning on my left arm as I picked the weeds with my right hand.  I really hoped the weather would get better and better so I wouldn't have to wait too long to weed again.  It's better to go every other day, at least, so that I could get the weeds under control.

And my wish was granted.  The start of the week has been great.  Going back to the garden on Tuesday, I finished picking whatever weeds I missed that other day. And the chicken wire helped.  The peas are growing well again.  Hopefully the pesky rabbits won't find another way in.  I already have weeds to worry about, I don't want to worry about the wild rabbits too.