Weeding - A never ending task

Weeds are something else!  It doesn't take them long to take over the garden.  It is amazing, really.  One day everything looks fine and under control and then you look again and the weeds are crowding out the good crops.  I wish edible crops would grow with the vigor that weeds do!

Below you can see a couple of rows that are overgrown with weeds.  The row on the left contains Swiss Chard and the row in the middle has Bull's Blood Beets growing on it.  The beets really stand out against the green weeds.  Those weeds have got to go.

Weeds in the Winter Garden (Before)

So I straddled the rows and began to pull the weeds while bent over.  One must be very careful, because if you aren't paying attention, you'll end up pulling up good crops along with the weeds since the weeds are growing intertwined with the good crops.  I inadvertently pulled up some carrots today while weeding.  It's okay - we'll eat them.  Nothing goes to waste.  Not even the weeds.  I chunk them over the fence and Daisy, Rosie, and Maggie are all too happy to eat the weeds.

One man's trash is another cow's treasure

The chickens like eating the green winter grass and weeds and will compete with the cows for a free meal.  It didn't take me all that long until I was finished weeding the couple rows that I set my mind on getting done this morning.

Weeded rows (after)

Russ had helped someone rake leaves the other day and they bagged them up and were going to throw them away, but Russ asked if he could take the bags of leaves. We opened the bags of leaves and poured them between the rows that we had weeded.  This serves a couple of purposes:  First it will suppress additional weed growth as it keeps sunlight from hitting the ground.  The leaves will decompose and soon become part of the soil, adding organic matter and nutrients to the garden soil.

Mulching the weeded rows with leaves

I'm always trying to amend the soil and add as much as I can to it to build the soil.  I'm so glad that Russ thought to ask for the leaves.  It is better that they go in my garden than be sent to the landfill.