The sixth day of my jungle taming, various areas around the garden that don't really fit into any one title were tackled. I was blessed to have my friend Linda help me out - it's both fun and motivating to tackle work with another person, and you get more done too. Thanks Linda!
We cleared weeds and pulled up couch roots from the barked area under and beyond one of my washing lines. I had meant to plant pumpkins there is summer, but never got around to planting them. The low green patch still under the line is some oregano I planted there to begin forming a ground cover. It's not perfect yet, but a big improvement. We left some self-sown flower plants in, and when I decide what to plant here, I'll give it another going over. Before and after pics below:
We cleared weeds and pulled up couch roots from the barked area under and beyond one of my washing lines. I had meant to plant pumpkins there is summer, but never got around to planting them. The low green patch still under the line is some oregano I planted there to begin forming a ground cover. It's not perfect yet, but a big improvement. We left some self-sown flower plants in, and when I decide what to plant here, I'll give it another going over. Before and after pics below:
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I also cleared out most of the couch and blackberry from in and around the tyres planted with rhubarb, gooseberry, lavender and a red currant against the fence. The tyres really need to go; I left them in for one more season to see if the gooseberry actually produced as it hadn't previously, but this past spring it was laden with luscious fruit that were so sweet I could eat them right off the plant! So, not sure if I'll attempt to move it, or just plant a new cutting-grown plant elsewhere (which means waiting another 3 years for more fruit) and get rid of this one. The rhubarb needs much more room than a tyre - I need to get around to digging it out and replanting. The tyres worked in the sense of lifting the plants up a bit above what is a very wet area in winter (often flooded) but are a pain because the couch grows in and behind them and is impossible to eliminate. The lavender plants I cut out as they're more than 3 years old, have never been pruned properly, and were past doing much with. That big blackberry in the tractor tyre in the corner is going to be completely removed this winter.
There are two of my original garden beds still remaining at the top of the garden; I've been meaning to remove them for a while but haven't got to it yet. Linda made short work of clearing the weeds from them for me.
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The area in front of my herb tree where I had intended to install another garden bed but have changed my mind for now had also gotten overgrown.
 While the new bed I created at the end of my blueberry patch doesn't have any weeds in it, the area around it had become overgrown due to the trailing buttercup pumpkin making it difficult to weedeater and mow. The same was true in front of my patch of fennel, where lovely Sanvitalia flowers spilled out over the front of the bed. Pics below. |  |
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One of my herb beds, and another containing onions as well as lemon balm and dahlias also were weeded out, and the pumpkin plant that was charging through the herb bed was also cut back, leaving room for my Echinacea which are starting to flower.
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So, really, just a day of ripping and pulling weeds - necessary work, with progress made, though not terribly glamorous! :-)
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