The Back Flowerbed

 ETA: I think I wrote this post sometime around June, but recently discovered that it never actually got posted.  Since I talk about this flower bed a lot and consider it a work in progress...I'm posting it now.

 

I've been alluding for some time to an ongoing project near our back fence, so I thought I'd better explain myself.  The "back 40" is the strip of land (steep slope) on the opposite side of this fence.  When we bought this house I had grand plans to put a gate in this fence and steps in the hillside - I even planted a bunch of flowers down the sides of these imaginary steps.  Then the city mowed them all over, exercising their right (obligation?) to mow the "right-of-way" opposite a fence with no gate.  And the real estate market went bad, and I got busy, and frankly it was just so far from the house...okay, enough excuses.  We've been letting the weeds take over the back 40 and the whole fence line ever since.  In the grand tradition of Shaela's house projects, I neglected to take a before picture before diving in.  To give you some idea how bad it had gotten, here's a closer shot of the section behind the shed where I encountered a rose bush and stopped clipping.

Somewhere in that clump is not only a massive multiflora rose, but also a medium-sized holly bush.  But when you look at it, you can't even tell they're there.

So I've devoted several hours this spring to chopping down volunteer trees and ripping out at least three different kinds of ivy, one of which seems to give me a very mild rash.  The cups you see in the picture at the top are little perennial seedlings, some of which I've already planted but many of which are still tipping over every time the wind gusts above 5mph.  ("Do you think they thought those were just trash?" N asked about the cups after some guests left one night.)  There are balloon flowers, pony tail grass, mallow, and soapwort, as well as a few daylilies I planted from seed last spring, a couple tough-as-nails flowering shrubs rescued from my former neighbor's flower bed, and two blueberry bushes.  (And, of course, potatoes in the recycling tote.)  It still takes some imagination, but I think it's going to be spectacular once it's planted and growing.

Cover Crops and Green Manures

Last week I wrote a post about the dutch white clover I planted in my community garden plot this fall (see Cover Clover).  Renee Michelle pointed out in the comments that I didn't really explain cover crops or how they work - and they're really brilliant! - so now I'm going to.

Cover crops are grown on land that isn't being used for production with the intention of cutting and/or tilling them (in my case, turning the soil with a shovel) before they produce seeds.  What's awesome about cover crops:

• Reduce erosion of (presumably) valuable topsoil
• Reduce loss of soil nutrients - particularly nitrogen - due to rainwater run-off and percolation
• Discourage invasion by weeds
• When they're cut/tilled organic matter is added to the soil, which:
• improves water and nutrient retention
• makes soil like mine much easier to dig, plant, weed, you-name-it
• Many can also be considered "green manures" because they are legumes, so they steal nitrogen from the air, which gets incorporated into the soil as they biodegrade
• Plant root systems improve groundwater and oxygen penetration into the soil
• Cut plant material can serve as a mulch for successive "cash" crops

I made those last two benefits red because they can't be realized if you till or turn the cover crop into the soil like I do.  But hey, pretty good, right?  And the only drawbacks are that:

• Can become weeds themselves (if not cut in time)
• Seeds cost money

I am sort of excited about cover crops right now because I've never had a garden as big as my community garden plot.  I am finding it onerous having to hoe so many square feet of path, particularly in mid summer, when the bare clay soil dries as hard as a rock and the wild grasses run amok.  (My plan has more path in it than strictly necessary because I feel having lots of paths helps reduce the temptation for little feet to impulsively run through a bed of newly planted seedlings.  A good trade-off if you ask me.)  The gleam in my gardening eye these days is the beginnings of a new, better, bolder plan for next year's weed-free garden!

Okay, go ahead and laugh.

Damn-delions!

Well I know it is spring when I see these little nuisances. Ours bloom pretty steady until it just gets too hot, then come back briefly in the fall. I don't spray our lawn with anything, both because I am too cheap and because I have cats and babies that play there. (I wish I could convince my cats to stay home or my neighbors to quit spraying.) I don't think the previous residents of our house sprayed with anything, either, because there were a lot of damndelions when we moved in.

I go around pretty much every day this time of year and pull out the ones that are blooming with the tool you see on the left. I would say I get the whole tap root out for about half of the ones I pull, which means that about half of them come back in a couple weeks. When I started doing this I used to pull two grocery bags per day. After three springs and three falls I think I am winning, though there were so many to start with that I don't think we'll live here long enough to eradicate them.

Someone suggested I try eating them so I wouldn't resent pulling them so much. So I tried it (a leaf). Wow, that was horrible. In fairness, you are supposed to eat them before they bloom, and I don't like normal leaf lettuce, but - wow, that was horrible. Maybe one of you who like lettuce will give one a try and let me know what you think.