It has been a awhile since I posted on any of my websites. i apologize. This is the first year that I have committed to blogging over the summer-seriously? I did that? Well, I said I would but I have failed to post more than about once a month since late May. I spectacularly over estimated my energy and will power coming into growing season.
Every summer I hit that late summer "Bleck/Blah" moment when I'd rather pretend that I don't even have a garden. The first flush of excitement is over and my plans have either flourished or been trampled by the reality of weather, pests, time limitations and human manpower shortages. This year it was a short sighted decision last fall combined with weather to create WEED-Ma-GEDDON in the garden.
Apparently it is VERY important to properly compost horse manure because of the amazing amount of grass seed in their manure. If you don't get it hot enough, all that lovely manure just becomes seed bombs surrounded by fertilizer for extra lush grass growth, as you can see from above. Even using tarps for pathways did nothing to stem the tide of grass in the garden this year.
I weeded, mulched, weeded, mulched, cut and pulled to no avail. Lately, I have been fantasizing about mowing the whole mess and pretending I meant to seed a bit of extra pasture for the horses.
Part of the battle was the extremely wet winter, spring and early summer we had which kept the grass growing like it was April until late July. Then the spigots shut off and we have been phenomenally dry unlike all the rest of everywhere east, west, north and south of us. This put the ka-bosh on pulling up the weed and grass by the roots and I just gave up.
The weeds and grasses are so far ahead of me there is no getting them back under control this year. On the upside, we have been contemplating relocating the garden and so this seems like an opportune moment to make that change. We will also begin a hot composting system for the horse manure to prevent a repeat of this year's mess.
Live and learn, then fail, and learn some more...
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