So today is hot. How hot? 106 degrees hot. Frankly, though, I love the heat. I don't work outside all the time, because I don't want to injure myself, but I do work for 15-30 minutes, then rest for 30 minutes. I think it's a Texas thing...we just love the heat.
So what have I been doing? Working on the super large garden, of course.
First, we staked out the "plot" - 35' x 23' - and and edged out the perimeter:
Don't let the tiller in the above picture fool you - it broke 4 times, and I was too tired to pull it out of bed (those things are heavy!)
Next, after fixing the tiller (which took way too long), I started tilling. Tilling is some dang hard work! But, with a lot of muscle and sweat, I got it tilled, for the most part.
Cultivating with a tiller makes for somewhat light-work, but it doesn't do it all. If you're still new at gardening, cultivating essentially gathers the soil several inches down, pulls it to the top, and in the process pulls weeds from the stronghold in the dirt. This, then, kills the weeds. Supposedly you can leave the weeds there and they'll eventually go back into the ground or blow away, but I hate weeds. I rake them together then burn them. Die weeds die! Hahaha
Today I also came across something incredible - the power of a useful tool! I think we all have something like this:
But, as many of us know, this tool can be one of the must frustrating to use. It can feel like you're swinging a sledgehammer, somehow trying to dislodge a weed - how the heck!?!? Well, believe it or not, lower-priced hoes do not come ready-for-use. You definitely need to spend a few minutes sharpening the edge. I spent about 5 minutes putting a grinding (at a 45 degree angle) the edge of the shovel and took it out for a run.
Wow! What a difference. It easily chopped 3" under the soil level to kill the weeds. There was no more whacking away with all my strength. It made the job 100 times easier.
Well that's all for now. Time for dinner :-D
Expansion!!!!! Looks great. I am with you, I rake my weeds up too. I know they are suppose to die but I have my doubts that always happens so I rake them, then dump them along the woodsline. (Hard to do in a subdivision though).
ReplyDeleteI cant wait to hear about whats going in your new garden.
Watch the heat too!
Lol, it's a mental thing, right?! I think I'll have bad dreams that they will come back to life, crawl back in the ground, and re-root themselves! haha...
ReplyDelete