Fighting Weeds With Weeds.
I've been struggling to keep on top of the weeds. Pulling a few up here and there to feed the animals wasn’t really having much of an impact, so I decided to have a better crack at it. The clover will be producing burrs soon if I don't get on top of them. Some already are.
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I started pulling them up by the fistful and got the lawnmower out to chop them up fast. The first bucketful went to the chickens.
The next seven went around the trees and bushes in the quail run. They won't eat much of it, so the rest will stay as mulch and can help fertilise the plants. It doesn't matter if there are seeds in with it, because the quails will eat whatever sprouts.
Eight buckets full and I'd barely made an impact! The back lawn was being overtaken by clover and soursobs too. I rarely mow the lawns, because our rabbits do that for us, but there is only so much clover they can eat and they don't eat many soursobs, nor should they as they're high in oxalic acid. Unfortunately, there was not much grass to be seen with all the broad leaf plants smothering it.
It was time to make the weeds do some of the work for me. The next buckets full of lawn clippings and shredded weeds were going to go on those other weeds. You generally have to be careful when mulching with fresh things, because they break down and will start breaking down anything they come into contact with. This is actually a good thing for my purposes, because I want the weeds to break down.
The pepino bushes have been growing through the fence and over the lawn, so I cut everything back expect the branches with fruit growing. These trimmings got mown along with the lawn and weeds, then added to the weed smothering mulch on the front garden. The front garden desperately needs a lot of soil improvement, so all that goodness should go down well.
There's still a long way to go, but progress is being made and all that nutrition can go back into the garden. Where the worst of the weeds have been chopped on the lawn, it's brown. Hopefully the grass will start to recover now it can have a bit of light.
The bees were busy in the front garden. I felt guilty that I was removing some of the flowers they were enjoying. Thankfully there are other plants flowering too. Even the little bay tree has flowers on it.
Bay.
Rosemary.
Calendula.
We’re currently having a run of warm days, but we had some high winds for a couple of days last week. There must have been some good gusts, because the lid on the henhouse got lifted and wedged up on the roof of the run. It's a pretty heavy lid, as well!
I had to tie some of the peas back up too. Instead of attaching themselves securely to their fence, they attach to each other then the weight of several plants in the wind just can't be sustained with one or two tendrils clinging to the fence.
On the poultry front they have greeted spring appropriately and many are back laying again. However, it was a sad end to the day as my sweet girl Artemis passed away. I noticed she was a bit subdued yesterday, then more so today. I brought her in and she died shortly after, no obvious reason.
Rest well gentle girl.
Thank you for your service, Artemis.
I don't want to talk about the weeds at our place. It's out of control.
I try to look on the bright side. At least it will be green and that's prettier than brown. 😁
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This was an intriguing read, well written and with a lot of nice pictures. I feel there's a lot to learn from people like you. You also reminded me of this documentary that I wanted to see but had forgotten about:
Source
Have you heard of it? :>)
P.S. Perhaps your rabbits were only interested in four-leave clover. Although I heard rabbit paws are good luck charms too, haha
I haven't come across that documentary before. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. It would be my dream to do something like that, but probably not in California where all those fire have been going. Not that were don't get plenty here.
The kind of luck my rabbits' paws bring are usually pee patches on my top when they've been sitting in their toilet. 😆
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lol ;)
I reckon that would be overkill for my little garden, in more ways than one! 😆
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Loved this practical, simple idea - we have tropical weeds sometimes waste high and it's a technique I'm going to use with the Karen, with some recycled cardboard weed matting underneath.
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The cardboard weed matting is a good idea. I've already got some determined weeds poking their heads back through my mulch! 😆
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That IS a lot of weeds!!! Goodness. But sounds like you are utilising them well. We will have warm weather and lots of growth and veggies soon yay. I am so excited for Spring.
We had some high winds the other day too, nothing damaged though. Not even dropped trees this year!
Sooo sorry about Artemis. Its always a bummer to lose your faves.
The faves always seem to be the soonest to go, too. She was the snuggliest of our araucanas.
I'm looking forward to spring and trying to be hopeful that I can keep everything thriving in summer.
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Good work! Sorry to hear about Artemis
Thank you.
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Okay, you got me there, @minismallholdings.... those are a lot of weeds, lol
I seem to remember seeing or hearing something once that clover is a good soil conditioner or something like that..... farmers encourage it to grow in paddocks in a fallow field to help regenerate it before introducing livestock .... or something like that....????
Yes, it's a nitrogen fixer, with those little root nodules. A legume I do believe. It's staying on my property either as a mulch or digested through animals first! 😆
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Those chickens look so healthy. I don't think they have ever been starved for a day.
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Some could probably do with a day without food. I have some chubby ones in there! 😆
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Every time I hear about weeds, I wonder if they're edible... Look into clover infusions, I'm pretty sure that's a thing. Sorry about Artemis, that's sad! What kind of breed was she? She looks like what we in the states call an amaracauna.
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I haven't heard of clover infusions, @nateonsteemit. It actually sounds rather delightful. Most weeds that we have are edible in some form, but whether you want to eat them is another thing entirely. I might leave the grad to the rabbits and chickens, u less things get really ddesperate.
Artemis was an Australian spec araucana. They are more like ameraucanas, though.
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