Weed War Part 1

I have a different view when it comes to weeds, I do my best not to use anything in my garden besides pulling.  When it comes to weeds in the yard, I will use round-up and blackberry weed killer but I would prefer to use something that I consider less toxic.  So here is a list of the weeds I have and they are all considered noxious (obnoxious) weeds in Washington and Pierce county.  Here is the list with photos:

 This is a pile of canadian thistle that has grown up through a tarp and 3 feet of dirt (this is also what happens when you procrastinate to put the dirt in the garden beds).  The thistle has slowly been making its way towards the house and we are slowly loosing this war.  We are just about to bring out the big guns and see what happens.








This is a beautiful field of creeping buttercup.  Don't know what will kill this yet.

Blackberries, I like some of them so I can have fresh blackberries but I don't need them in the middle of the yard.  The leave are brown because I am trying out new weed control methods.

This is an area that I just planted but they are being hidden by the weeds.   The tough thing about this area is I don't want to spray anything that my harm the surrounding foliage.

This beautiful (sarcastic) photo has 4 plants all in one.  From left to right: Herb Robert (Geranium robertanum), bedstraw (also know as the little plants that produce the burrs that stick to everything), Canadian Thistle, creeping buttercup.










We are also at war with Tansy ragwort which is a fineable weed.  We are getting it early so it doesn't spread and doesn't come back.  It is toxic and potentially lethal if eaten by certain livestock.  The bad thing is that the seeds can remain viable for 10 to 16 years so we have a long road ahead.

If you want a better list of noxious weeds and what category they fall into (established but tolerable, less tolerable and evil like tansy) go to http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/nwcb_nox.htm the Noxious weed guide to Washington State (it is a good site).

Happy gardening and weed pulling.  Next post will be how my alternative weed control ideas seem to be working.

While I have been doing some gardening (mostly weeding) I thought I would take a few posts to talk about how I got started, my resources and lastly my war on weeds.
First I want to introduce you all to a new member of my tomato family "Audrey."  She is a super sauce tomato that is supposed to make great sauce tomatoes.  The story behind her is that there are a bunch of us at work that enjoy gardening.  There were several of us that wanted seeds for this plant, so instead of seeds, we all got plants.  I chose her because most of my tomatoes at some point get a s shape in them.

 Sorry it is tilted.  But this is her the day I brought her home.  A little droopy from the mail but otherwise looking ok.

Here she is in the garden (she went in a few days ago).  She still needs the cage for support since she had a rough transition (she was hit by my         dogs tail).

So now a little bit on how I got started. 

Growing up my Dad had a garden and I remember enjoying the fresh food.  We also had an apple tree, pear tree, a few cherry trees, raspberries, blackberries and grapes.  After I went to college, I didn't have a garden.  Once I got my own place, I started a single raised bed.  I enjoyed the garden but had trouble with time and getting some things to grow.  Then we moved to 2.3 acres that had an area that looked like it had been a garden (though it was full of grass and weeds).  

Over the last 4 years I have spent ~$250 on wood, dirt, landscape fabric (more on that later) and little items like that.  Now I have 9 beds (we will see how that goes) and a new passion for growing my own food.  I also want to learn how to preserve what I harvest as well.  I have 14 tomato plants and the super sauce is for sauce so that is something new I will be doing this year.

My resources are:

a blog I follow onehundreddollarsamonth.com, and books:

The Backyard Homestead, Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! Edited by Carleen Madigan

Let it Rot, The gardner's guide to composting By Stu Campbell

Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza

 My list of seeds.  I will sometimes write a w for warm weather crops so I can remember when to plant them and not get too excited about planting things too early

 This is new for me this year, companion planting.  Though I am not doing this well, it is helping to figure out what to plant where.

This is my garden plant for this year.  What I do is take the plan I had from last year and look at crop rotation in The Backyard Homestead and the companion planting guide to figure out what should go what and what not to plant next to each other.  Due to the fact that I have more tomatoes than fit in my designated tomato spot and areas that I had planned for flowers are now changed since I planted melons and they are doing well indoors (though they need to go out ASAP).  So it is a fluid chart but it helps me keep things straight.

That is it for now, next edition will be by war on weeds.

Happy gardening!
Kristi