yesterday afternoon was spent trying to get my raised beds
ready for planting. i always leave the dead plants
over winter for the critters. i found two caterpillars and a
praying mantis egg sac that i relocated near the garden
while weeding and turning the soil (the grubs were fed to
the chickens). and…..of course…..there
were fire ants. today... for an hour... i boiled huge pots
of water and poured them through the bed…over and
over ...for an hour. after waiting thirty minutes i took a
shovel and turned the soil and those darn things just came
pouring out. soooo…i boiled and poured for thirty more
minutes turning the soil after each pour. i'll check again
tomorrow to see if i got them to move. (the wire and
bricks are to keep the neighbors cats from using the
beds as their personal potty until i get them planted and
mulched.)
as you can see the grass has grown up in the gravel over
the winter. here in the country we have bermuda grass that
runs up through everything. when i made this garden spot i
got a neighbor to use a bobcat to scrape and remove all the
grass…put down landscape paper…and a good four inches
of gravel but that doesn't stop MY grass. the good thing is
that it's easy to pull out….just time consuming (and back
breaking). i garden organically so i don't use any type of
chemicals for grass or pests. it's hard work but
definitely worth the battle.
now i'm sitting here with a sore back thinking of that first
asparagus quiche and fresh tomato sandwich…yum.
ant and grass skirmish to be continued….
