I’ve mentioned my weedy garden a few times lately. Perhaps you are picturing those pesky little seedling weeds needing only a bit of cultivating to end their careers. Picture instead some really big garden weeds.
Ozark Spring Plant Paradise
Usually the Ozarks enjoys spring for, at most, a week. Then temperatures and humidity soar into summer. That didn’t happen this spring.
Cool weather now in the seventies with frequent quarter to half inch rains are only now edging toward those summer temperatures. In the meantime the cool crops like turnips, cabbage and snow peas are looking luxuriant. Weeds love this too.
Classes of Weeds
There are those pesky little seedling weeds. Then there is the chickweed beloved by baby chicks and others about ankle tall. Lambs quarters, daisy fleabane and oats are some of the really big garden weeds.
Another way of dividing weeds is into those that stay and those that definitely go. Many weeds have lovely flowers. I leave a few – note the word few – of these to bloom. All others leave as soon as I can get to them.
Weather Considerations
I will work out in the garden in a misty rain. It is annoying, but not enough of one to make me quit and head for cover
Serious sprinkles and downpours mean garden time is over. Lately I’ve taken several showers as I head for the house.
Where Do Really Big Garden Weeds Go?
Since the grasses are busy making seeds, the compost pile is not a good option. Grasses and small weeds end up on a brush pile.
The really big garden weeds get pulled, trimmed, piled and carted off each afternoon. I pile them up in the goat hay trough shortly before letting the herd in for the night.
Goats are sloppy eaters so many stems end up on the floor. These will end up in the compost pile. The rest is savored by the herd.
There will be a lot of unhappy goats when the really big garden weeds are all pulled.
