COUNTRY ROADS

Everyone should have a pile of weeds per week these days. Those
weeds are getting the best of any garden slacker. Springtime it’s
easy to weed. The earth is soft and pliable, the weeds gentle and
young. On the other hand, these dog days of summer have hard,
stiff, stubborn weeds who have a considerable stake in the earth by
now and won’t give it up easily. Seed heads of weeds slap at your
bare legs. They interfere with the loveliness of flowers and the
neatness and definition of rows or pathways, besides sowing
millions of weed seeds for future years. Get rid of them!
It doesn’t take much time to create a pile of weeds when they
are large. Since weeding is what I do best I’ll share some thoughts
with you.
1. Never weed without watering first. It will help physically to
remove the root and the weed material will be cool to the touch and
not so caustic to your hands.
2. Get a kneeling pad or knee pads so that you won’t have to do
all the weeding standing up.
3. Use the proper tool for the weed. A rod weeder is good around
flowers and a pick ax takes out giant weeds in seconds. Our son in
Oregon prefers a very sharp hoe.
4. Place the weeds into piles rather than allowing them to stay
scattered.
5. Gather the small piles into a great pile on a tarp or in a
wheel barrow.
6. Use a barn fork for gathering the weed piles. It will lift an
amazing amount of weeds and prunings, even if they are laced with
blackberry thorns, safely, away from your body.
7. Weed the worst area first, preferably in the morning.
If you have a substantial garden you should set aside an hour
each day, or more, for weeding. This, of course, assumes that you
are retired or out of work. If you are in another category called
“working, with job” you will have to accomplish everything on a
weekend. Lots of luck.
The good news: weeding is exercise. A garden with weed control
is beautiful to look upon and walk into. Weeding gives you a sense
of accomplishment, even if only for a moment because you and I know
that the weeds will come back – in fact they will finally win out
when the gardener begins winter hibernation.
Meanwhile, back to those dog days of summer — they are so named
because of the “Dog Star” Sirius, which is the brightest star in
the night sky during the 40 days between July 3 and August 11.
Rainfall is at its lowest levels historically and hot, sultry
weather often occurs. Sirius is part of the constellation Canis
Major (Large Dog) and was recognized by both the Romans and the
Greeks as responsible for the excessive heat.
(Even then, no one wanted to take responsibility for the
weather.)
With warm days and, some day, warm nights come the bugs of
summer. Probably the most common pest in the garden is the cucumber
or Diabrotica Beetle. He’s the little green fellow with black
spots, an elongated body, easily squished between a finger and
thumb but impossible to control if they arrive en masse to devour
flowers particularly in the golden hues.
Short of spraying a biocide that will kill everything, including
bees, lady bugs and spiders, try using a product called EcoSmart
Garden Insect Killer. You can spray it on fruits, vegetables,
flowers, trees and shrubs, directly targeting garden pests. There
is no damage to flower blossoms. I sprayed it on ants that were
milking aphids who were attacking chard blades and they were wiped
out. EcoSmart contains the oils of rosemary, peppermint, thyme,
clove and is safe to use around children and pets.
Summer is when geranium bud worms begin to decimate flowers on
your beautiful plants. Little black droppings on the leaves and
empty buds where blossoms should be are indicators of geranium bud
worm. Look among the leaves of your plant and you’ll spot him. He’s
a pest and he’ll never turn into a butterfly. Give him a shot of
EcoSmart and make that geranium’s dog day.
Renee Kiff weeds and writes at her family farm in Alexander
Valley.