August 6, 2008

The seeds of spring lead to the weeds of summer

I cannot believe that August has arrived along with the many weeds of summer.  The gardeners, in fact, have been particularly busy keeping up with their rapid growth – the weeds are rampant this year!  On Thursday of this week, there is a photo shoot scheduled at my property and Jodi and her crew busied themselves yesterday by weeding the cutting garden, hoping to get it in camera-ready form.  Come – take a look.
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This is the cutting garden adjacent to the chicken coops.  Even though
deer fencing surrounds the property, those hungry deer still manage to
break in and it’s so important to keep the cutting and vegetable
gardens protected with high fencing.
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Remember the cat’s cradle dahlia blog?  Look how pretty this bloom is.
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And this one, too!
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I just love this multi-colored zinnia.
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And look how happy this one is!
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Chhiring
needed to use a narrow shovel to dig this nasty weed up.  Look at those roots!
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Dead-heading means removing the spent blooms to encourage new growth.
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All the clippings are collected and taken to the compost mound.
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This is a hand cultivator, used to aerate and disturb any weed
seedlings from taking root.  Gardeners know that this practice is
continual maintenance in order to keep weeds at bay.
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Here’s Jodi using a long handled garden cultivator, which serves the
same purpose as the hand held one – it’s just easier on the body.
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I just love this tool!  I discovered this weeding knife years ago when
visiting Japan.  It does an amazing job of removing weeds at soil
level.  We even designed our own version, which has been sold at Kmart.
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The sun is hot at this time of year and it’s so important to hydrate
the body with water.  George and Erika take a break from their labors
and, of course, laugh at a joke or two.
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Archive of The Martha Blog
Harvesting garlic in my garden recently
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Let's hop on the MSLO shuttle bus!
The customer relations department behind the scenes!

Behind the scenes in the Everyday Food test kitchen