Week 6 - The Garden of Weeden

I have nicknamed our garden The Garden of Weeden. Theoretically it's supposed to be an idyllic place. However if you look closely you'll see weeds springing up all over the place. Actually you don't need to look that closely. They're everywhere and they're large. Last week the paddock nearest to the house was a sea of yellow dandelions. This week it's a sea of white yarrow.

I got out the weedspray at the beginning of this week to go around the yard, spraying the weeds that either P missed or have popped up since he sprayed a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I got the proportions wrong and only did it at 1/4 strength. So at the end of the week I found myself doing it all over again, this time at the right strength. Even so it looked like some of the less hardy weeds had already started wilting.

The vegetable patch / potato garden is completely overgrown with weeds. This doesn't seem to be stopping the potatoes from growing though. I attempted to dig out some of the weeds one afternoon. I got about 1/8 of the garden done and haven't gotten back to it again.



The caterpillars that we kept finding in the sunroom have gone. There was a pile of firewood the previous owners had left behind, which I moved outside. A few days later the number of caterpillars had dropped dramatically. I'm still not sure if it was because we moved the wood, or if it was a normal drop off at this time of year.

We went to the Horowhenua AP&I show this weekend. Hoped to get some contacts for various things but didn't. It seemed to either cater for the established farmer by way of competetions, or for recreational lifestylers who are more concerned with the aesthetics of their gardens than the practical aspects of farming.

-M