It’s finally time to get the chore to end all chores done: cleaning up the vegetable garden. After a year of intermittent neglect, frustration, summer heat, and family tragedy it is definitely time to put this year’s garden under wraps. Mostly under wraps that is. We actually have a crop of greens on the way to help feed the family and ease the budget.
Here’s the view of the left side of the garden. The blue tarp is still down to prevent the Bermuda grass from taking over completely. The next step for this area is to remove the tarp and the raised beds then till it. Once tilled I’ll remove as many Bermuda roots as possible. I know I’ll miss a few rhizomes but drastic measures must be taken to beat back the Bermuda.
On the right side of the garden I have quite a mess of strawberries. Fortunately I didn’t take a before picture when the strands of Johnson grass were still poking through the strawberry foliage. You’ll just have to imagine it! The patch of green way in the back is a combination of asparagus and chickweed. Definitely not the ideal planting companion to asparagus! Chickweed just seems to invade everywhere this time of year. Fortunately it’s one of the easiest weeds to pull which is quite satisfying!
Now I can show you the good side of the garden. Here we have garlic interplanted with a combination of lettuce and spinach. There’s probably some cilantro here and there too since I seem to have it everywhere. Sure makes me wonder why it’s so expensive in the stores when it grows so well all on it’s own!
Here are a few more of the seedlings. I have the supplies for the PVC coldframe that will eventually be covering the greens but I don’t have it all pieced together yet. Soon!
There’s no shortage of work to be done even though the cold weather is arriving. I’m going to miss those warm fall days. We’ll get a few here and there but definitely not enough to suit my tastes!
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Don't toss the chickweed, it is a delicious salad green. Here it grows in the cooler wetter months of winter.
Bermuda: before tilling, take your digging fork and begin prying up the clumps of grass, shaking the dirt out of them, getting as much root as possible, then let them wilt and dry up in the sun before you put them on the compost pile.
In the future pull every clump as soon as you can get a grip on it, it's much easier when there is only one or two long skinny bits and it hasn't made an actual clump yet.
cheers