A Garden Surprise

Weeds irritate me. I have a lot in my garden to be irritated about at the moment. I spend hours each week pulling, plucking (and occasionally cursing at... ahem) the weeds. If you've read this blog before, you might already know that last year when we expanded the garden, we bought top soil to fill it. We live on clay & rock, so the garden must be elevated a bit.

So, we bought the top soil. What the company delivered was local fill dirt. Disguised as "clean top soil." When it's dry it's hard as a rock. When it's wet it doesn't drain. And it came fully seeded with the stuff they use to make hay. Yay. Yay for hay? Notsomuch.

So, those weeds are pretty much the only thing that grows. And I spend lots of time fertilizing the stuff I want to grow, and exterminating the stuff I don't.

That said, occasionally a weed demonstrates such a strong will to live, that I have to leave it be. One in particular proved to be quite stubborn.

I picked it (but missed the root), and it grew back.

I poisoned it, and it grew a little tan-colored.

I yelled loudly at it, and I'm pretty sure it laughed at me.

I stepped on it, and it grew crooked.

Eventually, I was forced to be impressed with this little weed, and decided to respect its will to live.

So imagine my surprise when I came out the other day and found this on top of it:

It's lovely!

(And leaning...you know, from being stepped on a few weeks back.)

I think it must be some sort of rogue sunflower.

It has several more buds down the stem. Do you know what this is?

If you know what kind of weed flower this is, leave it in your comment.

I might be inclined to send a lovely surprise to anyone who helps me out...

How Does your Garden Grow?

With lots of these:

cucumber flower

And a few of these:

cucumber

Three of these:

watermelon

 

And one of these:

okra

  

And a happy surprise that I'll post more about later this week.

Hibiscus...

Weedless Wednesday

Just a quick update on Our Garden 2010 (v 2.0).

I had started everything inside, then moved it all outside. This is a practice I must learn to stop. Ever since we got the bad soil in the bigger garden, the little sprouts die within moments of being moved into the concrete clay that is my garden.

So.

I replanted everything. From seeds.

So far, the only thing that is really thriving are the potatoes:

They're doing really well because they are in a garbage can with lots of good soil. In fact, they are growing so well that they grew above the top of the trash can before I knew it! I hope I didn't wait too long to throw some more dirt in on top of them. Supposedly, if I keep throwing in more & more soil, I will have a garbage can full of potatoes by the end of the season. Although at this rate, I'm thinking it might be full by the end of the month...


Another veggie that's growing pretty well is the corn.

 We planted ruby and sweet yellow. I put them in closer rows than last year in the hope that we'll get more actual corn.

I planted peas in pots again. In years past I have had them on the front porch, and out in the yard. In past years we've been lucky to get one or two pea pods before they got baked in the St. Louis heat.

This year, they are on the deck, right next to the house. They'll get a bit of morning sun, but will spend the rest of the day in the shade. We also have chives, green onions, and the wheat grass Tyson planted at school in May. I like keeping the onions on the deck so that I can run out & pick what I need while cooking.

So far, the garden is looking pathetic overall. I took this photo before we had a bit of rain. It's much greener now, although most of the green are weeds. I have no idea where they got this soil, but it is infested with weeds. I mean, it's taking hours each week just to keep them at bay... right now it looks like a green carpet. Of weeds.

We did plant green beans, tomatoes, okra (only three plants this year), watermelons (in the front yard), bell peppers, lettuce and spinach. Everything but the lettuce & spinach have come up so far.

What about you? Do you have a vegetable garden? An herb garden? Advice on controlling weeds? I'd love to hear from you!