The weeding? She is DONE.
The entire job took a total of three trips to the community garden and six hours of work in total, but my community garden plot is now WEED-FREE. Well, mostly. There are still a few little weeds here and there but nothing that is threatening to take over the place like the other ones were.
I’d like all of my readers to benefit from my stupidity, so I present to you: A Girl’s Guide to Good Weeding.
- Remember to bring a bottle of water or five. Stay hydrated.
- STRETCH first. You might scoff at the thought that weeding is exercise, but this kind of marathon weeding job definitely is.
- Bring a wheelbarrow, and, if you have one, a pitchfork. You’ll need the wheelbarrow to move all of the weeds into a compost heap. The pitchfork helps with this if you have especially prickly weeds like I did.
- Bring a shovel. You’ll need this to dig up those weeds that have a tap root or other stubborn root systems that won’t seem to let go.
- Wear leather work gloves. The first day I wore regular, pretty, flowery cloth gardening gloves. These didn’t cut it. I got a lot of those little thistle prickles in my hands. The next day I wore the leather pair and I was much more comfortable, at least until they got wet and soggy and it felt like I was wearing a wet diaper on each hand. Lovely visual, isn’t it?
- Wear work shoes and socks, not sandals. Your feet can get burned if you’re like me and you forget to put sunscreen on your feet. Also, having good ankle support and a solid footing for digging is important.
- Like I need to tell you, lather up in sunscreen. 50 SPF. Don’t argue with me, young lady! Just do it.
- Wear a hat. If you’re going to argue, see point above.
- If you have one of those cushy boards for your knees, bring it with you and use it. Your knees will thank you.
- Take before and after photos. It’s so rewarding to see all of your hard work result in something wonderful.
Of course not all weeding jobs are this huge to tackle, so not all of my points will apply to your garden,but some of these suggestions will undoubtedly apply to you if you are a gardener who has ever grown weeds, which is, let’s face it, every gardener.
My plan is to go back and plant my transplants later this evening when the weather cools off a bit and the sun is less intense.
Stay tuned for my weed identification primer, coming soon.
{ 1 trackback }