I worked in my vegetable garden all evening after work weeding each bed, mostly by hand. I did use a couple of tools, including the Half Moon Hoe, a three tined hand rake, and a long-handled three tined rake. But mostly, I used my hands. It’s the only way I know of to rip out the pursley that is growing so freely through out the garden.
I congratulated myself again on switching from a traditional row garden to raised beds. I can “fairly quickly” weed each bed and keep them all pretty neat, whereas with the row garden, I could not seem to keep up with the weeds. By the 4th of July, the weeds would start to get ahead of the vegetables and by the end of August, forget it. More foxtail was growing than anything else.
I am seeing a lot of weeds in the paths between the beds, and I tried to pull as many of those as I could, but there are some places with little or no mulch. So I’ve added to my list of “things to do in the garden this Saturday” to go and get a load of “Playsoft” mulch to add to the paths. Should be “loads” of fun. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)
I also convinced myself that the beans, even with their tops eaten off by rabbits, are trying to grow some new leaves, so hopefully there is something to be salvaged from this crop, and even if the harvest is late, I’ll still get a few beans out of the deal. My sister also had her beans eaten by rabbits, so maybe this just runs in our family, and there isn’t much I can do to stop it (like freckles) and I can only hope to keep it to a minimum. (Yeah, read that again to see if I really wrote that having your bean plants eaten by rabbits is hereditary.)
Speaking of using my hands to weed. I used my bare hands. No gloves. I know that can be bad and you can get cuts and end up with ghastly infections, but I am careful. I do use gloves if I am weeding things like thistle or trimming roses. But like most gardeners, I do better with my bare hands. In fact, I think if I met a gardener who always wore gloves, I would be a bit suspicious about whether or not they were really a gardener!
(FYI, I am up to date on my tetanus shots!)
I use my hands too, even after my husband bought me a nice pair of gloves. I need to feel the dirt! I often think that I garden mostly to play in the dirt and that the plants are just a bonus.
We ( I mean James) has put chickenwire fence around the garden and the rabbits do not know what to think. But at least the beans have their leaves. He will leave it up until plants are established and then remove and save for next year.
I wear gloves to garden, since my hands are rather noticable at work. I don’t think people would like me to handle their food with stained, dirty looking hands. I have a free source of mulch for my paths. Do you want any if he ever has extra wood chips?
Kathy