Filed under: September 2016 | Tags: cover crop, procrastinate, raised beds, Small Farming, small gardening
September 14, 2016
Over the last three days, my wife and I have accomplished much around the yard and garden. Many of the jobs we did were long overdue. I used the weedeater in places that I hadn’t touched all summer! I trimmed bushes and hedges that really needed a “haircut”! I weeded beds that forgot what the hoe even felt like. We chopped, trimmed, dug mowed and sweated like people possessed.
The summer flew by, as we did farm work, chopped wood, and took care of animals. Somehow, while I was immersed in farm work, the gardens and flowerbeds went WILD. I walked by and simply turned my head knowing that I would get to it sooner or later. Our neglected garden was simply pitiful. Honestly, I was ashamed of my laziness.
I sat down and we outlined an attack plan. I also decided to do away with a couple things that didn’t work for us. We tore out three raised garden beds. I kept the ones with our berry plants, asparagus and rhubarb planted in them. The ones that I thought would make gardening easier, I ripped out and salvaged the lumber. They turned out to be labor intensive, hard to mow around and constant suckers of energy.
We also renovated an old perennial flower bed. The grasses had started to choke out the flowers. I had tried weedblock, mulch and this year, the weedeater but I just don’t have time to make it look like it should. We will now be mowing up to the fence, as the whole thing has been planted to grass. The last order of the day was to work up the garden space and plant a cover crop of rye. The gardens and flowerbeds are now all ready for winter.
It is great to have this behind us. I am training a new horse and will be soon working up a field and planting speltz. The corn crop is drying nicely and the harvest will soon be at hand. I can now look forward to those things, working horses and just enjoying this farm.
Bye bye flowers, hello grass….shhhhh, don’t tell anyone…the fence needs painted!
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RicelandMeadows 
oh Ralph. thank you for this post subject as i have been feeling disappointed in how our yards are looking this year due to my time and attention being diverted to fixing up the house next year. I don’t feel like the only one!!
Comment by Donna September 15, 2016 @ 9:35 amps- our fence/arbor also needs to be painted…..
I know exactly what you mean. I put off so much it was almost shameful. Putting my head down, rolling up my sleeves and staying with it, gave us great results. I put a few other things on hold, but I am so very glad that we did. Today I will take honey off the beehives. I was worried the weather would change and I would miss my window, but it is going to be beautiful today. Everything works out and the good feeling of having many things done is awesome!
Comment by ricelandmeadows September 15, 2016 @ 10:23 am