AMERICA'S ROYAL GARDENER - MARIA ROCK
 

Would you like to make millions of garden dollars? Just find an environmentally sound way to truly rid the home garden of weeds. This product can’t work just sometimes but 100% of the time. Though early spring finds Rock Ranch putting on one of the most beautiful garden shows with lush green native grasses, wildflowers galore, dogwoods and hundreds of oaks leafing out one must not forget the wild weed grasses.

This week weeding has been my biggest garden task. List making always makes the job of weeding less daunting. A big green felt tip crosses off the finished weeding chores. The gardener always knows that when the sun shines the soil warms and weed seeds sprout with glee. Sometimes I can hear them giggling at me. Eighty acres requires some serious weeding with mowers, weed whackers, tractor scrapers, tilling and of course pulling weeds. This is a job I happily share with other members of my family. Our ranch looks as though the weed seed fairy was out here with a hydro seeder spraying weed seeds in every direction. They say a weed is a flourishing plant in the wrong place. Well, my garden close to our house is overflowing with flourishing plants in lots of wrong places. The stone pathway to view our pond has sprouted weeds between every crack. I just weeded it before the heavy rains. The joints in the concrete driveway are bursting with tiny weeds that are easy to pull if I do it this week. The hillside by our bedroom is crazy with weed grasses. We need to tie up a horse and let it eat away. If it were so easy.

My neighbor Sam Brock is beginning his yearly wild grass mowing. Can you guess why? Fire season is just around the corner. We have been greeted with all sorts of sunny weather that forces the grasses to reach higher and higher for the sun. Early mowing of the weed grasses will prevent some grasses from maturing to set weed heads that scatter all over the hillsides. If we have another good rain the seeds set those roots and begin the growing task once again. We will be mowing next weekend as this weekend is slated for mending fences. There are all sorts of chores on a ranch that seem to grow during the late winter and early spring months. What does a gardener do?

If you have a big mowing job or weed whacking job you can buy or rent a ride on mower or larger weed eaters for your home. Have a garden party and bring the whole family in on a great outdoor activity to clean up the garden. The more people you get to help the faster the garden jobs will go. List the jobs and you know how I love to make lists. Ask who wants to do what and write their name on it. How about those weeds that grow up against fences or behind them? They grow big and green this time of the year but the weather changes and they turn to brown dry weeds which make a fire hazard. Weed eaters or weed whackers are the best tools for getting rid of these weeds. Hand picking is not the answer.

However, one of the easier weeding projects can be in garden beds that have lots of plant growth that take up the space for weeds. Honestly, one of my favorite garden jobs is weeding planter beds because you can see a finished job in sight that looks really pretty when I am done. Three small piles of weeds later and my rose garden is lovely to view. Mindless weeding allows you to concentrate on where the next weed is growing and how to get it. Good therapy for the whole family.

Some gardeners use chemicals for cleaning up weeds in the spring. There are several types of organic products that can cut down the weeds. Next week I will list them for you and where you can find them. Since we have pets galore, my crawling grandson Aidan and young visitors wandering throughout my garden I refrain from spraying the more harsh chemicals on the market for weed control.