I purchased my first Hoe! This is getting serious! I was watching that gardening show the Manic Organic the other day and the guy said this is his favorite kind of hoe for weeding. It's an "action hoe" and I'm sure you all already have one and know how magical they are but just let me enjoy this, okay?
THIS THING IS MAGIC! It slices right through the weeds in record time! This morning I finally had time to weed the rose garden since I'm pretty much done digging up grass. It only took me like 15 minutes for 72 feet! Listen up gardeners - if you don't have an Action Hoe - get one! Today! I'm sure you also noticed the big ass bale of straw in the picture. I finally resigned myself to using straw as mulch for this first year for the following reason.
- I'm broke and it's very cheap. Only 5.99 at the garden center
- My soil needs amending and after reading lots of organic gardening stuff, they say this will break down over time and be good for the soil.
- I don't want to spend my summer pulling weeds from these new beds.
I took this picture this morning and I've actually already distributed this straw to all the beds except the kitchen garden. I spent 3.5 hours this morning weeding, getting rid of big piles of sod and spreading this straw all over. My yard smells like a farm. Not a bad thing but boy does this stuff make me sneeze. I'll be honest though, after using my magic hoe, I'm thinking that weeding wouldn't have been such a big deal and this straw is not the most beautiful thing in the world. Stay tuned for pictures of the freshly strawed beds...
Here's the garage bed all cleared out. The only difference from the last picture of this bed that I posted is that I finally got the corner cleared out. There were some weeds over there that were borderline trees they were so big. You can't see them but my itty bitty Clematis vines are planted on either side of the window. They don't seem to be growing but they don't seem to be dying either so I'm hopeful!
This is the foundation bed that I finished clearing. The next time you see this, it will be covered with straw. Can somebody please come over and haul off these big piles of crap that I dug up? I'M EXHAUSTED!
Hi Gina! Thanks for visiting my blog -- I love reading other chicagoans and seeing what's up, so I'm glad you found me. It looks like you've been up to some serious overhaul. I've enjoyed reading your blog and laughed when you said you were sick of taking pictures of crap. I felt like that for a while. I was lucky to have my gardens already here, but a lot I'm finding out now is overgrown and a mess so it's a work in progress. I wish I could answer some of your questions but I'm also just as clueless (hence the need for the blog). But keep it up!!
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