I Have Weed-Jungle-Osis: Leaf Me Alone, I’m Dusting

Holy Moly, we got no rain at all for many days / weeks / almost a month so I planted lots of seeds and some transplants and used the sprinkler to water and that’s OK to keep things alive but it doesn’t do squiddly-dot to make the garden flourish although some of the stuff began to take off a bit and then we were blessed with some rain and KABOOM everything is growing and boy howdy I went outside to check the weeds today and I’ll finish this very long run-on sentence by saying the weeds are doing GREAT!!

I’ve been known to complain about how weedy the garden is; and my Beautiful Girlfriend Wife Lady is very tolerant of my whining. She just says, “Oh well!!  We always get food!!”  The garden, was, is, and probably always shall be a balancing act between normal chores and family stuff.

And that’s very OK.

So you know what I’m doing, right? Yes!! I’m staying very busy with the Leaf Brigade! What? Never heard of the Leaf Brigade? Well neither have I, because I just made it up. I’ve been busy weeding… chopping many weeds with my hoe, and pulling many others by hand. Some weeds will die after being uprooted. Those I just lay down on the soil. Others, like quack grass, are more stubborn, and go in a bucket so I can let them be sunburned to death on top of the compost pile. After weeding, I water where the weeds were removed and cover with a nice thick layer of leaves for mulch. Those I mentioned earlier, the weeds that die when uprooted will feed the worms after I lay the mulch down. And of course the worms will poop in the soil and that feeds the plants.

Yep, the plants really love worm poop. How do I know this? I ask them of course. “How ya doin’ today, Corn?” “Doin’ good Ken… had a nice bowl of worm poop for breakfast.” Well OK maybe they don’t really say that.

Well I got the corn and the potatoes weeded and mulched; now it’s time to attack the beds in the middle of the garden.  Before the rain, I saw a couple weeds… no big deal.  Then came the smoke from all those horrible Canadian wildfires.  Not sure about you, but when the air is very unhealthy outside but pretty good inside, I just don’t go outside much.  That of course resulted in a very nice crop of pretty large weeds camouflaging the veggie plants.  I plant my veggies in beds, with things like broccoli and Brussels sprouts bordered by Swiss chard and beets.  When the weeds are big, one must be very careful not to uproot any veggie seedlings that are trying to make a go of it.  I carefully yank the ones that are not too close, and take a pair of scissors to snip the ones that will rip up veggie roots if I yank them.  Today everything looked like a miniature forest of weeds and food plants. Rather than replant everything (although some of it may be), I water first, then carefully remove the weeds. After the weeds are pulled, it’s time to sprinkle the leaf dust for mulch.

Do what now??

Yes friends, I made leaf dust today. Wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last. You see, I’m one of those weirdos who uses leaves all over the place in the garden. I literally take a lawn mower and mow the leaf pile to grind them up. Then I sift the chopped leaves dust through a sifter I made that sits on top of the wheelbarrow.  I like to share pictures of this stuff, so click each picture for a better view if you’re so inclined.

Sifter I build all by myself!

Leaf Dust!

The end result: Leaf Dust! Delicious with milk and sugar and a few slices of banana on top. NO!! It’s for the plants; where it’s too crazy to try to place mulch between the many tiny food plants. If I don’t weed, I ain’t a gonna get no food. And if I don’t mulch, same as it is now, I’ll get lots and LOTS of weeds.

Weeds are OK, but all those veggie plants are a bit more delicious. Don’t you agree?

Well, at least I don’t have the same garden problems as Porky Pig…