Between downpours and the dog ¨helping¨, I try to continue on with the garden.
I shifted the plastic over to start a new patch. It´s done a pretty good job since it was placed in late November. I put down two tarps to cover what haven´t turned yet and threw down some cut grass on the rest. I keep thinking there must be an easier, faster way, but even renting a tiller, the ground is too wet to work.
Next, I dug a trench from the edge of the plot to the ruts leading to the pasture. The elevation is slightly against water flow, but with the quantity of rain that´s falling, it can´t hurt.
The back of the shed is an eyesore, but I have designs on putting some kind of water tank at the back to take advantage of the roof run off. In the meantime, last year I hacked back the shrubbery, cleared out 3 bags of broken bottles and other trash and then abandoned the effort after realizing that the roots of the shrubs and the stones of the bed had all intermingled into a nightmare. Now the shrubs are bouncing back.
On to the wall, which the neighbor had to take down in order to yank out a bunch of weedy evergreens that had been planted on top. The stones just got stacked randomly back into place and some day will need to be rebuilt, but in the meantime is sporting a green mass of weeds. If anyone knows what any of these are and can recommend yanking them or letting them be, speak up.
And a new pasture weed which is spreading rapidly. With small, pretty blue flowers, it´s similar to a weed we had in Chicago, Creeping Charlie or Glechoma hederacea. That was a nightmare to get rid of. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help and I hope you are all accomplishing more.
1st picture, looks like a bay to be, crush a leaf and you should have a lovely smell from it, used in soups stews and rice puddings.
ReplyDelete2nd picture Penny Wort, pretty and harmless.
3rd picture, are the leave hairy? if so it is probably Mullin, it will have pretty yellow flowers later on, a herbal cure for ear problems and bees love it.
4th ?
5th, it looks like greater celandine, has a poisonous sap, yellow flower and a very tough root to get rid of.
last one is lesser speedwell, does no harm but spreads like crazy.
Depending on what weeds you were covering it is probably better not to rotovate especially if there were nettles or bramble there, each small piece of root will form a new plant!
Thanks! I thought it was regular bay laurel, but then started having horrible second thoughts. It´s everywhere from the hedges. Good to know about the speedwell, too. I´ve been calling the penny wort ¨wall cress¨ since that´s what it reminds me of.
ReplyDeleteI´d have to rent a rotovator, so I guess it´ll be just me and my spade.
The 4th one looks as though it might be Greater Willow Herb, if so it will have purple flowers around June time. Can be invasive but make a lovely addition to a flower bed, if you don't want it to spread too much just pick off the seed cases before they turn brown.
ReplyDeleteHi Coco,
ReplyDeleteThe laurel looks to me like: Prunus lusitanica, the Portugal laurel. There is a massive and old one down this way at a place called the Garden of St Erth. You'll be happy to know that it self seeds prolifically (or maybe it spreads from the roots too, I'm not really sure). We also have the Chinese laurel down here too. Nothing eats either of them.
The little round leaved creeping plants looks an awful lot like Gotu Kola: Centella asiatica, commonly known as centella and gotu kola. It is a medicinal which tastes an awful lot like fish to me. Which is a bit weird for a plant.
The rest of them I have no idea about. I've never used a roto-tiller either, but your plastic covering seems to have worked quite well.
Your garden is looking excellent as usual.
Cheers
Chris