Weeding 101 (Or How A Weeding Wimp Gets Out There After Penning The Weed Manifesto)

1. Take the time to build your soil. This could involve just dumping compost on your beds in the fall. But the more air your soil has in it, the easier it is to pull those little weedy suckers out. Cracked clay soil is the worst to deal with on so many levels. So amend your beds whenever you can.

2. Get out there after a good soaking rain. Get in the muckety-muck when everything is loose and easy to snag.

3. Early morning and late evening are easier on the soul and the skin. Mid-day weeding is a recipe for disaster. I mean, is there any part of it that could be enjoyable? The scorching sun? The dried up soil? The bug swatting? Count me out.

4. Invest in a pair of nice leather gardening gloves. Virginia has some of the meanest weeds around. Thorny and nasty and relentless. But they are no match for my leather gloves.

5. If you can sit, sit. If you can kneel, kneel. Save your back and get as close to the ground as possible. Have a bucket or something very close to your weeding spot. An old sheet works well as a weed catcher, too. Then, you can just drag it to wherever your weeds go to die.

6. Have a spot that you want to put on hold after weeding? Layer newspaper or cardboard down on the area, wet thoroughly with a hose and then put compostable materials on top (grass clippings, kitchen scraps, mulched leaves). The newspaper and cardboard will stop more weeds from growing and will eventually breakdown and become part of the soil. *Warning* - I do not recommend newspaper in a bed that will be growing veggies, fruit or herbs - as we are still learning about the chemicals that are used in the printing process.

7. Larger swatches of land can be chopped up with a hoe. A hoe. A hoe. A hoe. Chop. Chop. Chop. This is also easier on your back.

8. Build in a reward for afterwards. A tumbler of iced tea, a vat of ice-cream, a hot bath. And make sure you can catch a glimpse of your good work throughout the day. From a window, from your porch, from an air-conditioned room. To help you remember that even this most tedious of tasks makes you a gardener.

I don't know why this last step is important. Trust me. It just is.

Mid-November and Still At It

Turns out, autumn gardening is truly a favorite gardening time of mine. No relentless bugs, no humidity, no energy-zapping heat. When you weed, things stay - weeded. When you tidy up - things sit that way for a spell. There's the snap of the fresh air. The smell of fallen leaves. You get the picture. It is precious time - to be taken advantage of - when getting a head start for next season.

I am slowly putting our gardens to bed. My belly has been getting in the way of some of my chores - so, this week, I am going to hunt for a low, step stool that will become a gardening seat. To get me closer to the ground. I mean, us, closer to the ground.

Our raised vegetable beds. Slowly being cleaned up - with lots of help from my mother-in-law. Compost and shredded leaves will be added, and in some cases, sheets of cardboard will be used to smother the sections that host the hard-to-pluck/kill weeds.

My $10 potting bench (from Roses!). I have been rinsing out containers with a bleach and water mixture - to eradicate any lingering pests from this past season.

Lavender plants on their way to being transplanted from a container to our raised beds.

The Way of the Dandelion

From my dabbling in herbal concoctions and recipes along side my weekly haunts through the hippie food store, I am often noticing/hearing about/intrigued by the love of the dandelion.

I always stayed away - forever unclear on the fine line between yummy dandelion experiences and the severely bitter 'never again' tastings. And what of the mystery regarding the roots vs. the leaves (a.k.a. greens) vs. the flowers?

So I became extra curious when visiting the website of my favorite radio show - The Splendid Table. They had an on-line recipe for Dandelion Flower Cookies. Hmm. Sweets and flowers. That I could stomach.

The recipe was written by botanist Dr. Peter Gail. Who also wrote The Dandelion Celebration. His website, Goosefoot Acres, literally expounds on all-things-dandelion.

I also read this article on the DIY Network, in which Dr. Gail is quoted as saying, "[dandelions] contain more beta carotene than carrots, more potassium than bananas, more lecithin than soybeans, more iron than spinach and loads of vitamins and minerals."

The trick for the leaves (here it is, folks) - "is to eat the greens before the flower buds appear. [Dr. Gail] says if your dandelions have already sprouted, cut them back and harvest what grows back."

Make sure to pluck those flowers before you mow. For the cookies. Priorities, right?!