doo and edges

sometimes i seem to make more work for myself than i really should.

but hopefully it will reduce the amount of work for my old age..?

today i bought another 13 packages of 20' rolls of edging..over the past several years I have been attempting to get the quack grass and the foulest weeds out of my gardens and hopefully the eging (i've been putting it in as able over the last several years too)..will help to keep out that nasty stuff..

i think these 13 rolls should just about finish edging my new area i'm reclaiming for vegetables and orchard/berry/perennial edibles garden.

i have some of it already done..

also some of it will be raised beds with wooden edging..(salvaged)..

also i don't have my own domestic animals (lots of deer and rabbit poop in the yard and gardens)..so i was thrilled when my husband brought me home a pick up load of dairy doo..spent 6 hours working on the quackgrass and ddairy doo yesterday but it is really col here today so I went SHOPPING..and bought all the edging..

i probably have a good month of quack grass digging to get it all reay ..but most of our tenders don't go inot the ground here untnil about May 31

Well since last Monday I have been attempting to dig literally tons really of quackgrass out of the long since neglected garden patch. Were talking about 25 to 30 years that this area hasn't been weeded or tended at all. It has ancient asparagus, rhubarb and some other things growing there, oregano has taken over as well as poppies and some other herbs and bulbs..horsradish in one area..

I began last year attempting to start reclaiming this area by havinig my son run over it with a pull behind the tractor tiller..but never really got time to work through it.

well I have this week, with a pitchfork and shovel and wheelborrow..already pulled out about a ton of quackgrass and gone wild oregano...carefully replanting any usable plants that have been pulled up, mostly some rhubarb, asparagus and iris and daylilly roots.

i now have a HUGE pile of quackgrass roots and other weedy stuff..and have no idea what to do with it....can't really compost it as quackgrass roots would just regrow..

i have finished 2 of the beds, the asparagus area is about 1/2 done and one other bed finished and framed in for a raised bed, and one half done..as well.

At first I thought it would take me all year to get it done..but i've made a whole lot of headway..and the two finished beds i did yesterday got edged with platsic eging and doo will go in there with some char in the next few days.

Right now i'm praying for rain and taking meds for horrible chest and back spasms (from all the tossing sod and liftin with the stupid pitchfork and shovel..owie...I knew yesterday that a week of this was too much but i pressed on with 9 hours of pitching yesterday and paying today.

if you want to see some photos of what i've been doing here is a link
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?p=4412474&posted=1#post4412474

You're photos are wonderful!  I can over-do-it when I get a project started, too.  I hope you're feeling better. 

The thunderstorms are moving-out of my area this morning.  So, thanks to the good rain, I'll be able to start pulling weeds from my new garden beds, too!  I have, studiously, avoided the garden centers this spring.  But... a new one opened just a few miles away and my palms are getting itchy!

Joy!

i have finished the major part of that reclaimed garden..some weedy areas still need work and the wild plum and 4 hazelnuts still need to have the areas dug up around them so i can  get my beds in around my baby trees, and edge out the quackgrass from strangling them.

I have planted many of the finished beds now to herbs, perennial and annual vegetables, tubers, some perennial flower and food plants (rhubarb and jerusalem artichokes besides the asparagus and horseradish and mult onions). And i have gotten some of the dwarf fruit trees in, still waiting for others to arrive as well as grape vines and i put in 4 climbing roses to go over my arbors.

Even have been bringing in bird houses and bird baths as well, to make my feathered friends happy

brenda you have been at it, the poind is loking lovely, very bnice it didnot look so nice last year when it was freshly dug. Do you get any sun with all those trees around? rose

Thanks for your report - I can sympathize with the overdoing   I also put in a quack grass barrier years ago - I used aluminum flashing, about 8" +- wide, and various lengths, and buried it enough that the top was level with the brick 'mowing strip'.  Unfortunately, between the indefatigable quack grass's white wiry roots and subversive moles, I changed strategy recently, pulled up most of the flashing (80' ?) and bricks (recycling that stuff elsewhere) and retrned to diggiing up the stufdf.

Regarding disposing of 'bad' weeds (horstetail, roots of quack grass and morning glory aka bindweed), I've finally decided that 'drowing' it effectively kills it and allows me to recycle its nutrients.  I have a big barrel of water where I dump the devil weeds; I've put the 'manure' water (smells the same!) on stuff and it doesn't seem to do any harm, and my be beneficial.

You may want to wash and dry some quack root to make a tea - I've read in herbals that it's been  used for urinary problems.  Now, if there was a use for morning glory !

Rose, actually the pond gets way too much sunshine..I really need to get a little more shade around the pond..the fish really don't have much place to shade themselves or hide.

the cattails now produce the only real shade in the water so they head for those..later in the summer the water lily leaves will be providing more shade to the water..and they can hide under them.

yeah i'm pretty happy with the way the sides of the pond are progressing, esp the north end..but there is still so much to do there..

i am amazed at how much is taking root and growing on it's own in that heavy clay, a lot of grass, yarrow and dandilions..so i guess it has some fertility to it.

i have planted a few dozen trees and shrubs and a lot of divisions of perennials right up along the waters edge..i can't go far from the edge as i know there is still some landscaping that will be done but most of the edges i can still work with. I have to leave a few areas open to access the  pond and then  some fairly wide areas open nere the shallows as my son really wants to dig out the shallows better. I realized why when i was inhis house the other day talkingabout thepond and he said to me, "I really can't see the pond from in here with all the cattailsl"..and i looked out and from his house all you can see is cattails..so he has a good reason for wanting to remove some of the shallows on thesouth side..his house is on the southside..and he i'm sure would appreciate a better view..espof the wildlife (ducks, geese, deer, etc)

with him working 70 to 80 hours a week it isn't likely he'll get much done this year though

oh and i forgot to mention, i just ordered a new floating solar fountain (had one years ago but it burned out)....can't wait to get that into the water..