Successful Cultivation....Homestead Weeding Success!

On Weeding your garden

The art of successfully cultivating your garden plot could fill tomes! Today I plan to introduce you to one method of weeding your garden plot (or lawn, or flower bed, or whatever…) that might be little different than you are used to.

Proper mindset is KEY!

To start with I’d like to address something that may not be obvious….thinking about what you are trying to accomplish with your weeding. At first glance this may seem obvious, but bare with me here. Going into this task with the mindset of destroying your arch enemy the “weed” will trap your thought process into the realm of destruction. Contrast this with concentrating on stewarding an environment where your chosen garden companions can thrive cultivates a mindset of abundance and life! This is accurately demonstrated in the way we talk about this process….our words direct and reflect our thinking and our view of the world around us. Be intentional and mindful about how you speak of the world around you, it matters! Enough of the philosophical ramblings surrounding the weeding of your garden!!! Moving on….

Fostering the proper environment for abundance in your garden!

Creating a living soil that fosters fertility and abundance for your chosen garden plantings is the overarching goal here
Pick a starting point for the day, this will be your starting point everyday so I always start at the point closest to the house with ease of access
Mentally section off your bed into partitions that can cleared of undesirable plants in a reasonable period of time (without wearing yourself out and sapping your motivation)
Day 1 Clear the first section of undesirables
Day 2 starting in the same place as day 1 clear any undesirables that you may have missed and any that may have sprouted since then and then move on to clear section 2
Day 3 start in the same place as day 1 then move through the section you cleared on day 2 and finally move on to the third section
Day 4 thru ? repeat the process until you have moved through the entire garden area always starting in the same place and going over the sections you have already cleared until you get to the new section
When dealing with stubborn perennials (like Canadian Thistle or grasses) you may need to repeat the process several times until the root systems have exhausted their energy reserves

The finer points…

Choose your weapons wisely….I prefer to use long handles tools that allow me to stand up straight to reduce fatigue.
Minimal soil disturbance in key! The more you turn the soil the more weed seeds are brought to the surface to germinate creating more work for you.
Rather than trying to dig the undesirables out by the roots, I always try to leave as much root in the soil as I can taking only the actively growing portions of the plant.
Be vigilant…..develop the habit of getting out and working your garden for a reasonable amount of time on a regular basis (daily if you can). This is how you exhaust the energy reserves of perennials and maintain that environment (physical and mental) conducive to garden success