Today In the Garden

The garden is coming along nicely. There were a few scary days when the temperatures at night dipped into the upper thirties. I covered the beds a couple of nights to be safe. Everything came up except a couple of cantaloupes. Most of the plants are still very small, but have really started growing well this week. We had a freeze last Saturday night and my daughter covered the boxes for me. I was a little worried about the tomatoes, but all the plants survived. We have had rain and very warm weather this week and the garden is loving it. And......so is the grass and weeds. There is barely two feet in between the boxes and the fence. There is no room to get a mower in there to take care of it. But, I had plans to cover it with newspaper and cypress wood chips anyway. I started working on that project yesterday. After assessing the grass, I decided it was too much and too thick just to lay newspaper down and hope that it would kill it.

So, I got busy and started pulling the grass and weeds up by hand. Well hello, that was an undertaking. What was I thinking?

Between yesterday and today, I pulled up three wheelbarrows full and have just a little tiny bit left to do closer to the gate.

After the last wheelbarrow full of grass and weeds were hauled off, I began laying down the newspaper. God Bless my mama for saving newspaper for me. It took weeks to get enough because I lay it down thick....maybe 8-10 sheets thick. Next, I watered it down well. 

I only laid down half of the newspaper because I do still have that little tiny bit of grass near the gate to pull up. I'll do that tomorrow. Once the newspaper was down and wet, I started spreading the cypress wood chips. The combination of these two...newspaper and wood chips should kill the remaining grass and weeds underneath and give me a nice clear path around the garden beds. 

 And this is how it looked at 6:30 this evening, when I finished my day.

 Oh wait, this morning when I looked up from my coffee cup, I saw this.....

 

Today was the first time that I have seen Goldfinch in the yard. At one point, there must have been twenty out there. I just couldn't capture them all at once, with my camera. 

Well, I am off to relax. I've worked hard the last two days. Be sure to come back next week. I'll have even more done in the garden. 

Lovin' it,

Laurie