Farm Diaries: Gearing up for summer, the learning continues

There is still chill in the air. The strong winds blew away the cardboard sheet mulch from my vegetable beds. Redoing a task isn't fun.
On the sunny side, the garlic is growing strong and healthy. So is lettuce. Fenugreek, that was direct seeded two weeks ago, has started to sprout but it is little scared to get out from it's seed in today's windy weather. A row cover is helping it survive. The month of May this year has been very odd. It hasn't been very warm and the nights get chilly.

I am no fan of winds. A slight breeze is okay but gusty winds that blow away efforts of my work in the field isn't my friend. I am beginning to realize the immense amount of patience it needs to grow a vegetable farm or home garden. I admit, coming from a technology background, I am used to getting results as soon as I hit the Enter key on keyboard. Or I would love to tweak a code or configuration to have the results I want. Alas, I cannot do it with the slow growing spinach in my garden or the many onion seeds that died on me without giving a sign. Only 9 onion seedlings are left.

One of the many non-weather related reasons for why onion seedlings failed can be accounted to critters. My garden was unfenced until two days back. Groundhog and rabbits all thought they were welcome. Some seedlings were not hardened well before planting outside. Lesson learnt.

Row covers seem to do a good job of protecting my recently planted seedlings from winds and rain damage. Although rains press the covers down, it still protects the plants from dying. At times though, I am short on things to press the cover down. I am using some old sod that was lying around and empty milk cartons to hold the row cover in place.

A lot of grass and weeds in the garden after last week of rains. Weeding takes away a lot of my time from other things I want to do in the garden. Many things, including sowing new seeds, gets postponed on days I do weeding. Many of my beds are covered with cardboard mulch and compost (except spinach, cilantro and fenugreek which are direct seeded). It is the paths and the edge of the beds where the grass keeps growing if not checked. The dandelions, though they look nice with their yellow flowers, are difficult to control in garden. They are everywhere. For the grass that grows along the edges of beds, I take a scissor and cut it down short. It takes time and a lot of neck and back pain. This first season dealing with weeds is a tough call. I do not know what could be an easier and cost effective way to deal with weeds. The two measures that I am taking for my farm is using cardboard mulch and black plastic mulch for beds. For paths, I wanted to use wood chips but I have a big garden and buying wood chips from stores will prove costly. Let me know how you control weeds in your garden.

Happy gardening.