Grandma's wit

One summer I painted my grandmother’s barn. Cattle pens were attached to the back side of the barn. After my grandfather died, Grandma no longer had livestock, so the pens were overgrown with weeds.

Marijuana was the most prolific weed. (Although prolific, wild marijuana is not very potent.) Some of it grew more than waist high and I am a tall woman. One day I thought I’d have a little fun with Grandma. I pulled up one of the marijuana stalks and took it into the house when she called me to supper.

“Grandma,” I said, “I can’t believe you would grow marijuana in your cattle pens!”

She looked at me, looked at the plant, then said, “Well, you picked it.”

What could I answer to that?

De-mint-ed

I should have listened to my mother.

Hubby and I planted mint in our vegetable garden. After we'd done the work, she warned us that mint was very invasive. We didn't want to undo what we'd done and we left that plant in our garden. How foolish was that!

Mint sends out wicked runners. All those runners must be removed from the garden or the plants will grow back. If we had listened and ripped it out, we would have saved ourselves much grief and work. Instead, every spring I "de-mint" the garden. When it's done, I say I am "de-mint-ed." I was demented to plant it in the first place!

The first year we de-mint-ed, we had to get fill dirt from a construction site because our garden had a crater in it. That evil plant had even sent runners under our sidewalk to infiltrate another garden. The crater's contents went into our driveway. The Frugal Gardener hates waste. We're still dumping our precious garden soil into the drive because of mint contamination, although the loads get smaller each year.

Unfortunately for us, we planted the mint right on our property line. It spread into the neighbor's lawn. The neighbor thinks the stuff is great and tends it. Therefore, it spreads right back into our garden. See the mint poking through the fence? I can't dig up the mint that's right on the line because my shovel hits concrete. So I'm stuck with it.

Yes, I definitely should have listened to my mother. Don't plant mint!

Green Gold

Water is at a premium in our lovely windy, semi-arid climate. Keeping our plants hydrated is a strenuous task. The Frugal Gardener also intensely dislikes weeding. So she has a solution to both. It's called mulch. Merriam-Webster defines "mulch" as "a protective covering (as of sawdust, compost, or paper) spread or left on the ground to reduce evaporation, maintain even soil temperature, prevent erosion, control weeds, enrich the soil, or keep fruit (as strawberries) clean."



Once mulching is done for the year, we start filling our mulch bin. To make the bin, Dad wired together six pallets that were headed for the landfill. (Rescuing items from the landfill always makes me feel virtuous.) Voila! Free mulch bin! Construction took about an hour.



We fill the bin with yard waste, mostly grass clippings. However, we do save leaves as well.



To suppress weeds, we lay down cardboard and newsprint before covering them with grass clippings, leaves or whatever else will degrade. I get the local newspaper's extra papers just for the asking.



I used to lay down just newsprint, but the cardboard stays down much better. That's very important in our high winds. My friend and I Dumpster dive until we get enough cardboard boxes to cover our gardens. We break down the boxes and remove all plastic tape. Plastic tape does not degrade and will just have to be pulled out of the garden later. Then we lay the flattened boxes on the ground. Weeds are smothered and the ground is better insulated than if we just used yard waste.

Do not use any coated paper or boxes. They don't degrade well, so you miss the soil enrichment. Make sure to completely cover the paper/cardboard to keep the wind from getting it.



Once I finish mulching, I water the new mulch to compact it as well as make it heavier.

Happy mulching!

Headed for the Last Roundup

The Frugal Gardener despises bindweed (seen here in my corner garden) and its cousin morning glory. Wicked, wicked weeds! I've battled them ever since my brother and I slaved in my mother's garden.

Our previous homeowner actually planted morning glory where we now have our vegetable garden. What were they thinking? They had even erected a wire trellis for it. Removing that trellis was our first garden project.

Every year I pull, pull, pull that nasty vine. And every year it returns. Disgusting. Morning glory is supposed to be an annual. If "annual" means that it returns annually, the description is right on.

I didn't have a bindweed problem until last year. Then it appeared in my corner garden, probably brought by a passing vehicle or bird droppings. UGH. Some started growing in my sidewalk. I dumped straight bleach on the sidewalk bindweed and killed it.

I've already sprayed the corner garden once this year and I sprayed it again today. Hopefully this spraying does the job. If not, I'm going back out there. That stuff is going to die!

I found quite a discussion about killing bindweed on Garden Web's forum. Some people get hot under the collar about using chemical weed control.

I prefer organic gardening to using chemicals, but if it's a choice between bindweed infestation or using chemicals, I choose chemicals.