Weeding: The Constant in Any Gardener's Life

Being a Horticulturist means that I am into growing, inside and out. I have extensive outside flower gardens because my property sits on an underground river. The almost three acres I own consists of an old pasture land where dairy cows grazed for many years, making the soil very rich in nitrogen. It has a gravely type of soil and it abuts a wet land in the back. The entire property is slanted towards that wet land that funnels the ground water from the adjacent hills to the stream out back. When I purchased the house and walked the boundaries, I saw that much of the property was rather soggy, but I had no idea to the extent of it until I awoke one morning, after purchasing the property, to find over an acre under 10 inches of water. That story will be for another time

This is about how well the plants and, especially the grass, grow all summer long. I discovered the makeup of the soil when I dealt with the flooding, which happened during a period when no rain fell for two straight weeks. I learned that the top two feet consisted of gravel over four feet of heavy clay. This is the reason why the ground water flows so close to the surface. My water table is very high, indeed. The grass grows incredibly fast, and the property is very difficult to mow because of such a constant water flow, rich soil and an uneven surface.

When I first purchased the property I just came out of a divorce and did not have any real gardening equipment. I had one power mower that used my power to push it. I purchased another used self-propelled mower that used all the propelling my eight year son and I could supply. We would mow every day for three hours, and when we finished the front and back lawns, it was time to start again. It was extremely difficult because the grass grew so thick and fast. That is why I planted perennial gardens in the areas that were the most difficult to mow. My neighbor kindly tilled the areas and I planted and planted and then covered the soil with landscape material and mulched. The grass has such deep roots, that pulling the clumps of sod out is hard and time-consuming. Preventing the grass to take hold again with the use of the landscape fabric was suppose to aid in the prevention of the deep-rooted grass and weeds from growing back again so that the perennials could take hold and fill in the spaces. And it does. But it does not prevent the shallow-rooted weeds that have root systems that spread just under the surface like wildfire spreads in a fire storm.

And thus we come to the topic of weeding. I put hundreds of hours, tons of money, and about three backs worth of energy into these gardens. My intention was to plant with plant species that spread and become thick quickly so weeds would not have room to grow. And I actually did achieve this. After six summers of planting, the gardens were filling in beautifully and quickly with just a minimum of weeding in the beginning of the season before the pretty stuff grew in. My plan was working well. That is, until I had the surgery for the right tibia reconstruction. I have written several articles on the process. See "A Fixator to Fix a Problem." I am almost healed, but still have a below-the-knee cast for a bit longer.

My first surgery on my leg was in April of 2008. I was out of commission for the entire summer and had to walk with blinders on when I hobbled on crutches past the gardens that surround the house. I could not do any weeding. As a result, the weeds took over and, in some places, took out some of the perennials. All my hard work was deteriorating before my eyes and I could do nothing about it until I healed.

That was last summer. I am now almost healed and can walk well with just one crutch. So I decided to attack those weeds that were threatening the expensive plants I worked so hard to put in. I put on an old sock over the toes and covered the bottom of the cast with a plastic bag and I dug in. I had to have help caring my tool bag, little bench and someone to collect my crutches as I continuously left them behind as I hopped along on the stool around the beds. I would gather up my strength, and crutches and dive into the beds to get those hard to reach weeds towards the back. I had to redefine the boarders because, even though I had dug landscape trenches to create a space between the beds and the lawn, the lawn grew in all last summer. Because I could not stand and use the edging shovel, I use hand spades to dig into the sod--that very sod I removed several years ago. What took me a few hours with a edging shovel years before, took me days with a had spade.

I have completed the entire gardens surrounding the house, the front corner bed and the top of the side bed next to the driveway. That is one bed that is always wet close to the surface. It is a major travel route for much of the ground water that runs from the hills to the west and under my property to the stream in the back. It measures 25 feet by 20 feet and is planted with "Blue Rug" Juniper, flox, sedems, and some lilies. I have managed to weed the top so far. The sides will need to be redefined again, and all that tall stuff growing in the middle needs to be pulled out, too. Ever walk on a blanket of juniper with crutches? It's quit an unsteady experience. But to save that beautiful hill garden, I will wobble along pulling all the weeds I can reach and beg, plead and grovel for a friend to get what I cannot.

Now that I have a really good walking cast and boot on, I can walk much faster and longer, but after pulling weeds for several hours, I collapse with no more energy to walk the mile I try to do daily to get back my strength. I fall into my chair and gobble pain pills. The area of my leg where the cut was made to the tibia does not hurt, just everything else! I am really happy to see the rain so I can rest my aching body, but I know that it will only make the weeds come back sooner. So if you do complain about the summer chore of weeding, just remember it could be worse. You could be doing it on crutches!