A Losing Battle

After a week of neglect, we got a shock when our garden looked more like a jungle.  I exaggerate, of course, but really, the weeds have grown so tall and so plentiful.  The tall weeds almost blocked our view of the tall potato plants and the luscious pumpkin plants.  Some vines were climbing up the pea plants and some even invaded the tiny carrots that were trying to grow. 

Needless to say, we had to work real hard today to clear the weeds.  I was very happy with our work before this, but the days and days of bad weather didn't allow us to do our weeding.  The rain and long daylight hours helped the weeds to thrive and it was amazing how fast they grow.

It's really like fighting a battle that we can't win.  Every time we managed to clear the weeds, they would simply grow back.  Sometimes I suspect the weeds grow twice as fast after we cleared them, sort of like they were saying "na nana na na" at our pathetic attempts to get rid of them.  It's impossible to be there every single day and pluck out each weed as they pop out, because that's exactly what I feel like doing after another long battle with them.  I feel like if I don't, they'll double or even triple themselves and take over the garden within a day or two.

I would have been more conscientious about weeding if the weather hasn't been so bad.  Last year was nice and sunny so we were at the garden a lot.  This year, there has been more rainy and cloudy days making it feel like summer has never been here, so we had to stay away more often.  I guess, I would have to be less uptight over the weeds.  Since it is not possible to keep the weeds out totally, I have to learn to accept that the garden would not be perfect and that weeds would always be a part of the garden.  I just need to make sure more of the beautiful vegetable beds are viable and not crowded out by the weeds.

If I were to look past the weeds, I suppose I could be happy with the vegetable beds.  The potatoes are growing well and have even started flowering.  The carrots are growing nicely as well.  I had to thin them out, which means I had to pull out those that are growing too close together to allow for more space in between for them to grow big.  The ones that I had to pull out looks nice and smells so carroty.

The peas and beans are also growing well.  They have started flowering and I guess we will soon harvest our first beans and peas.  The second group of peas that I planted weren't doing well though.  They have been attacked by rabbits again.  It seems like the rabbits love to eat baby pea plants, but I have plenty of other pea plants that have survived.

The broccoli and cabbage are doing well too.  The leaves look very strong and healthy.  My lavender plants are getting bushier too.  But the biggest growers there would have to be the pumpkin.  The plants are huge! They have even grown out of the allocated bed.  Luckily there is an empty space beside the bed.  That was to have been a walking path but its ok that they have taken over that space.  They can grow as big as they like, as long as they produce some good sized pumpkin by the time autumn comes around.  In fact, we could spot a couple of cute, round pumpkin developing.  I just hope they are hidden from view so that they won't attract other people to go in and steal them.

Weeds, rabbits, thieves.  The problems of a gardener.