I'll be frank with you. Last year, I let the weeds in our annual garden get ahead of me. I was hand pulling regularly but man oh man that is some time consuming work. Truthfully, for the sake of actually getting the weeds out of the bed I prefer to hand pull so that the roots are removed. I think it helps with keeping them from continuing to pop up over and over. But guess what? This girl doesn't have time for that when I have 15 beds to take care of along with potted plants as well. So, when I saw this weeding tool on one of the farm pages I follow, I needed it. I have the 72 inch version of it but that is currently unavailable so I linked the closest one I could find to it. It's basically exactly the same and you really don't need the 72 inch version.
It has made such a difference in weeding my beds for me. It takes me maybe 5 minutes to weed each bed now (as long as I don't let it get out of hand). Kurt even takes it with him when he goes to weed beds at the garden he is in charge of and when he is weeding in our garden. He told me he really likes it. I will say it is best to use it when the ground is dry. When it is wet, it makes it hard to just drag it across the top layer of the soil. If you do it while the ground is wet, you're basically tilling the top 2 inches of the bed. You just run it over the top and it cuts the weeds. Seriously, such a time saver!
An update on the squashes... there's definitely squash bugs up in my grow bags. I gave up on the netting because they were getting in there even with the net. So, now, we are on the defense. I've been going out once in the morning and once after work to check the plants and remove any eggs and bugs. That seems to be keeping them at bay but man those suckers are annoying. I'm just hoping they don't ruin the plants before we get something out of them. There are some squashes already growing so I'm hopeful!
Something funny we have discovered in our area around the garden, we have what we like to call volunteer plants. Basically, that just means that they are growing randomly and must be from either birds or from us feeding the pigs over the winter. We have quite to variety of squashes growing, some of which we think/hope are pumpkins, along with tomatoes. I have been keeping an eye on them to hopefully be able to harvest from them along with our annual garden. They both already have produce growing on them which is super exciting! We should have an excess to be able to play around with new recipes. I really want to figure out a good recipe for homemade tomato sauce that I will be able to can, so if you have recommendation send it my way!
I am looking forward to starting to harvest and get things preserved so we can share them with others. I think the thing we ate the most from last year was our relish. We made a regular and a spicy version and both were so good. Hopefully we will get a stock of that made this year, along with lots of other items. This garden has been quite the undertaking but I am excited to see what it brings!
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