Weeding Around the Farm
What maintenance work are you doing in your garden?
This is always a hectic time around my Bedford, New York farm. My outdoor grounds crew has been doing a great job pruning, mulching and weeding all the beds and tree pits. The weeds are quite rampant this year, and everyone is particularly busy keeping up with their rapid growth. Last week, we spent nearly every day weeding. It's a tedious job, but a necessary one to keep everything looking its best.
Enjoy these photos and tips.
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- The outdoor grounds crew has their work cut out for them in the gardens – they’ve been in the beds removing the weeds by hand. Several wheelbarrows of weeds go to the compost pile every day.
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- Here is Fernando cutting back the daffodils and weeding in the tree pits under the great pin oaks.
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- To remove the dead plants, Fernando snips them off at the base. After daffodils bloom in the spring, it’s important to allow the plants to grow until they die off on their own. They need time after blooming to store energy in the bulbs for next year.
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- For weeding, Fernando likes to use this hula hoe. Hoes are very useful in the gardens. The hula hoe has a triangular-shaped head and a hardwood handle for strength and durability.
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- It’s great for weeding as well as for cultivating around live growing plants. It works by using a back and forth push-pull motion to cut weed roots deep under the surface.
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- Fernando then rakes up all the loose debris with a garden rake.
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- It looks so much better already.
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- Fernando carries several trug buckets of cuttings to the compost pile, so they can properly decompose and then get reused.
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- There are many types of tools that help with weeding. I prefer the short hand tools best, so as not to disturb any of the neighboring non-weed specimens in the beds.
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- Some of the other tools we often use around the farm include the hand rake and round edger – these are essential to keeping the beds tidy and manicured.
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- Wilmer is down in the vegetable garden caring for our many tomato plants, and weeding around all our crops.
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- Weeds grow wherever they can. It’s actually good to weed during and after it rains, when the roots can be removed from the soil easily.
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- Over in the herbaceous peony garden, there are lot of weeds – look at all of them poking through the mulched footpaths.
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- Chhewang uses a regular garden hoe for weeding this area. Garden hoes are ideal for chopping, weeding and clearing garden growth. This one has a six-inch wide blade for optimal weeding.
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- After weeding, the footpath looks so much better.
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- Now to tackle the weeds growing in the peony beds – look how tall they are.
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- Recently, we also weeded, mulched and pruned my Boxwood Allee.
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- In front of the main greenhouse, we’ve stored more than a thousand tree seedlings. I like to nurture them in pots before transplanting them into the ground. These seedlings also needed lots of weeding.
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- Our executive administration intern, Samantha Frisoli, came to the farm to help weed. I don’t use any chemicals in my gardens, so we do tend to get a lot of weeds during this time.
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- Weeds are removed by hand carefully so as not to disturb the individual trees.
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- Then they are placed in another corner of the lot. Here is intern, Emily Morse, helping to move the pots after they’ve been weeded. This team has developed a good assembly line process.
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- The trees look so much better after those pesky weeds were removed from the pots.
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- Here is Samantha carrying more loose weeds to the compost heap.
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- And here is Phurba using a hoe to weed around the garden beds in front of the blog studio.
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- Dawa prepares the rich mulch that will also cover these beds. It is important to mulch. One of the best benefits of any mulch is its ability to retain moisture in the soil. Organic mulches break down over time and contribute to good soil health – and it helps control some of the weeds.
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- Some of the weeds we’re tackling include dandelion, which features a deep, fleshy taproot. Leaves branching from the taproot form into rosettes and can remain green throughout the year. The leaf margins are deeply lobed with the lobes pointing backward toward the base.
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- Chickweed is an annual weed that prefers shady, moist soil, although its seeds will sprout in dry soil. The easiest way to control chickweed is to pull individual plants.
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- Garlic mustard is fast spreading and can grow in most soil types. It can also grow in full sun or full shade. Be sure to pull these weeds during flowering, before the plants produce seed. And, pull at the base of the plant to remove the entire root.
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- White or Dutch clover can be persistent, widely adapted producers with leaves that grow in sets of three leaflets. Each leaflet is tear shaped and many have a stripe across it. White clover grows in a creeping manner and will develop roots wherever a stem node touches the ground.
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- Crabgrass gets it name from the leaves, which form a tight, crab-like circle. It can become a problem quickly during the summer because it is able to grow vigorously in hot, dry conditions. Discourage crabgrass by mowing at the proper height for grass type.
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- When pulling weeds by hand, grasp the weed by the top of the taproot rather than by the stem or foliage. Then slowly pull straight up with a slight twisting motion. This will break the feeder roots free from the taproot and allow the taproot to be pulled up completely.
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- Getting the entire plant, including as much of the root system as possible, is critical. Many weeds will resprout from dormant buds in any large pieces that remain in the soil.
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- It takes a lot of elbow grease and patience to keep up with weeds in any garden, but I am sure you will agree, it is all well worth the effort. Keep up with your weeding, and let me know what tools you like to use in the comments section below.
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