Weeding Challenge

Hello,



I have not put so much time and energy into the community garden. It is not as large as it used to be plus mulch has been keeping the weeds under control. I have to confess that I do not feel needed. Consequently, I have often stayed away. Sometimes I have been busy with other activities.



Just recently we went to the garden to harvest some red Russian kale as well as other types of kale. It was also necessary to water the garden. At that point I noticed that in spite of the mulch there were quite a number of very large grass plants. I remember that my dad called this grass, knuckle grass because it would create a joint and put down new roots every few inches making it difficult to get up and out of the garden.



Earlier this week we had a very nice rain. So Wednesday I went to pull that grass. The onion row looked quite overwhelmed. It seemed there were no onions there which could be because they had all been picked. Instead I found that I was pulling up grape sized onions along with the grass. Some of the onions I put back in the ground, hoping for more growth, others I brought home to use in some creative manner.



Today I went back to pull more grasses in another area. It is quite satisfying for me to weed when it looks so different when I am finished. It was quite a challenge as the ground was drier today and I think the grasses had grown two more inches with the rains help. A few times I had to use a digger, but generally I just pulled up all the branches, gathered it into one bundle, holding close to the ground I yanked several times and out it would come with varying degrees of soil still attached. Tapping the roots against the ground dislodged quite a lot of that valuable stuff.



Even though I was tired when done, it looked so much better that I wished someone else were there to share in the victory. Now the question is, “Will anyone remember there was a lot of grass in there and notice an improvement?”



Paula