Does Anyone Enjoy Weeding the Garden?

So is there anyone who enjoys weeding the garden?  The answer is a big, fat affirmative, but we'll get to that in a minute.  A beautiful Sunday afternoon found me in the garden, looking at winter weeds that have about taken over my patch of garlic that I planted back in October.  Garlic does not do well with weed pressure, so my goal was to weed the garden and then use hay as a mulch to discourage weed growth during the Spring and early Summer until the garlic harvest around the June time frame.

Garlic (Before)

If there's one thing I've learned, it is that weeds aren't going to pull themselves.  So let's do this.  Bending over straddling the row and pulling, being VERY careful not to pull up any garlic, I started my task.  In about 20 minutes, give or take a few, I had the weeds pretty much pulled.  Pretty big difference between the photo above and below, huh?

Garlic (After)

I don't have to pull every single weed, because I intend on sprinkling some chicken litter on the ground between the garlic and then putting out a nice, thick layer of hay all around the garlic.  I didn't have time for that today, but it is on my to do list. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday afternoon I'll fit this in.

Ready for some organic fertilizer and a layer of mulch

I can't say I enjoy pulling weeds, but the weather was nice and I had a crowd providing me encouragement. Here are the individuals that enjoy weeding time, because they are the recipients of the weeds.  See? Nothing goes to waste.  These girls will convert a waste product (weeds) into a value added one (delicious sweet, creamy milk)!

Jolly Jerseys

There's no playing around.  It's heads down work for these girls (and one guy, Bully, in the middle with the nose plate) come weeding time. They're bent over eating while I'm bent over weeding.  I'm glad someone gets enjoyment out of this.

More weeds, please...

The family cows aren't the only ones who enjoy weeding time, either.  The chickens absolutely love to eat weeds.  They rushed to where I was throwing weeds over the fence and began eating grass right alongside the cows.

We love weeds!

These hens have been anxiously waiting for the green of Spring.  Once the cows finished eating the weeds, the hens stayed on patrol until they had scratched the ground bare, leaving no trace of any of the weeds.

Competing with the cows for the feast

The chickens will take this green material and convert it into beautiful fresh eggs that have deep, orange, rich yolks, courtesy of the carotene in the grass.  We'll eat as much as we can and for the rest?  Well, I placed our sign by the roadside yesterday:

Better than any store-bought egg!

Since the goodness of these eggs come from the green grass in the pasture (and from the garden), I plopped the sign down smack dab in the middle of a patch of clover.  I figured it was appropriate.