June 8, 2008

Discouragement has set in at plot #68.

Yes the radishes were harvested successfully. Yes the radishes tasted wonderful, moist and crisp as radishes should. Yes I was proud as I could be as I carted those radishes to the car, waving them in front of anyone within view and shouting, "Look at what I did, y'all. Look at what I did!"

But those feelings of pride and self worth were short lived, unfortunately, because as the family stopped by the good ol' Sumner Community Garden today to check on things I noticed nothing seemed to really be growing. The carrots are the same size as they've been for two weeks. The beets are the same size they've been for two weeks. The peas are slightly larger than they've been for the last two weeks. The pole beans have been eaten. Two of my eight squash planted have sprouted, and those two are planted too close together so one will likely need to be killed in the interest of thinning. The other is the same size as its been for two weeks (the potatoes are doing well, but we'll ignore that fact for the sake of continuity). And as I surveyed the lush green vegetation filling the gardens surrounding plot #68 I have to admit I was feeling much more like a knifeman than I was a farmer.

Plot #67 (Mr and Mrs Smeltzer)

Plot #69

Plot #58

Discouragement. Sigh.

Plot #68

Oh but hey! Something is growing like a "sumbitch", as Sheriff Buford T. Justice might say. Something was growing all over my lovely yet nearly dormant garden. "What was growing" you ask? I'll tell you what....

...Weeds!

Everywhere I looked were weeds. Weeds, and weeds and weeds. Weeds in the pathways. Weeds in the rows. Weeds squeezing themselves in between all the little seedlings like a bunch of dirty thieves trying to steal any and all nourishment that might actually be required by said seedlings in order to actually grow.

Weeds. Death to weeds. I'm going to get a group of my fellow gardeners together and we're gonna hunt those little bastards down and kill every last one of them. We're gonna light torches and run angrily through the streets of Sumner carrying pitchforks and jugs of Roundup while screaming "Kill them! Kill them! No room for their kind in Sumner! Kill the weeds! Kill the Weeds!"

But I digress.

Anyway, the situation impressed me as being desperate so I dropped the family off at home, and after changing into my farmin' duds I headed down to the Agri-shop to see my friend about a weedin' tool. And boy did I find one.

Don't ask me what its called. but it's made in Japan and its sharp as hell. You just run the blade along just below the surface and it chops those nasty little bastards off at the roots. I will be Samurai Gardener.

Now I know the real idea is to just hoe the weeds up and leave them on top to rot in the sun and add organic matter to the soil, thereby enhancing growth of the desirable plants in the garden, but while most of you are now enjoying near summer temperatures along with minimal rainfall, we here in the lovely Pacific Northwest are suffering through another November with temps in the 50's and rain nearly everyday. Weather like this just encourages those little half dead weeds to turn themselves over and dig their little roots right back into the soil and start growing again. I know. I've tried it, and the problem grows exponentially from week to week. So I want them O U T! And that means I'll need to spend a great deal of time on my hands and knees, toiling in the sun, doing my part to nourish Mother Earth so she may nourish me.

Crap!

So I did. I spent 2 hours squatting like a catcher and slicing those nasty weeds off and picking them up and dropping them in my bucket. I worked my way through the ghost town formerly known as Radishberg. I weeded Spinachtown and Carrotland clean, and did the same for the Wonderful World of Beets. I went ahead and did some thinning of my carrots and beets in the process and by the time it started to get dark I had weeded and thinned one entire quarter of my garden. Yep. 25%. Thats it. Two hours and only a fourth of my work was done.

Saddened and only slightly less discouraged I picked up my implements of garden construction and headed back to the van. As I loaded the tools into the back I noticed what looked like a large mound of bark with a big white sign stuck in the top.

Oh yeah, this mysterious horse lady, Mary, had offered to bring us a load of composted horse manure. I had received an email about this a few days before.

It appears Mary has come through with that load of crap just as she said she would so I felt I would be doing her, as well as myself, a disservice by not actually using some of her compost.......so I grabbed a bucket.

I spread the composted horse manure throughout the weeded section of the garden. And as I stood there, sprinkling horse dung around the plants that will produce the bounty with which I will feed my family throughout the summer and possibly some of the winter, I could think of only one thing...

..wasn't I gonna buy some gloves?

--It's Fosco, Dammit!