Hello All,
Well, for better or worse, Alix gave me permission to post on the SBCGBLOG, so I thought I would do a brain dump on y’all starting with my experience mowing inside the garden with the renewed ‘Jaffe 2002′ riding mower last week. I spent a couple hundred dollars and several days time tearing down and rebuilding the MTD mower John donated to the garden in 2002. It runs and cuts well, but several of the safety features originally installed broke, fell off, or got removed because they limited its function. I’m keeping the key for it so nobody will be tempted to run it as it is fairly dangerous by modern mower standards. It is great for mowing the annex vineyard, though, so I put the money and effort into it.
Since the new gate made access possible, and the grass inside was already like a hay field last Thursday, I decided to do what I could with the Jaffe to save Scott and the other mowers possible coronary problems trying to get it cut. What I realized is the garden is really junky. It was very difficult to maneuver and I kept turning up junk that several times got wound around the blades or went shooting out at high velocity. Little new plants were unmarked and stuff was left laying around like an A-bomb flash had gone off and people fled never to return. Piles of debris for burning and an entire peach tree needed circumnavigated when a nice fire in January would have made them vanish. It was an interesting view into the workings of the SBCG. The workings of an obsessive Prussian hell-bent on neatness it ain’t (save the flower beds which are a model for the establishment)! Being partially Prussian, I have some of the garden neatness genes, and my hair raises on my neck whenever I peak inside the gate (I focus on the flower beds).
So, for the record, I’ll post some tips that may help sharpen up the garden and make it easier for everyone to navigate and get their chores done.
1. If you see something out of place, junk/garbage laying around, or something not put away, take the minute to pick it up and put it where it should be. If every gardener picked up one out-of-place item every time they went to the garden, it would sharpen up some. I know that many of the folks gardening are highly focused, white-collar professionals that can have a difficult time being distracted from the task at hand when thirty others are lined up after it, but breaking from the focus on the tree to see the messy forest and doing a small deed to clean it up can be therapeutic. I have yet to see anyone sitting on the bench at the garden simply soaking up the view. We are definitely too busy.
2. FIRE! There is very little use of fire in the garden. It can be a gardeners best friend for cleaning up the winter’s trash and killing all the overwintering wildlife living in it. I’d bet Peter Rabbit loves that burn pile by the shed that has been left all winter! All the prunings laying around also harbor disease and congest the space. As long as you don’t burn in a gale or light up before 5:00PM from February 15 to May 1, you can certainly use fire to clean things up. It even kills Bermuda grass (AKA wire grass) if hot enough. It certainly kills grass seed and other weed seeds (like spiney pigweed). With the Greif compost as an organic matter supply, I would burn everything I could in the Fall and plant a winter cover crop to turn in the following March-April. I’d do it later if, Oh-NO don’t say it, glyphosate could be used.
3. You knew I would go there! I still strongly support the controlled use of banned substances of all kind. This is one reason I make alcoholic products for sale! Prohibition is not a solution to anything and creates many new problems. Please consider the cost of not using glyphosate around the garden fence. The weeds grew up and thick between the electric fence wires, shorted it out, critters got in and it was a bear to clean up (thank you Scott – and the cable-tied chicken wire critter barrier that must have taken weeks on hands-and-knees must be mentioned!). Now a few treatments taking 15-30 minutes eacgh around the fence keep it weed free all year (as it was in the beginning). The fence can be monitored for electrical shorts and even Peter Rabbit stuck inside can’t get out. This story comes to mind every time I hear the “Wire Grass!” mantra now. Glyphosate is exceptionally effective in killing Bermuda grass to the last stolon. Its controlled and informed use inside the garden to control problem areas or clear new areas would save endless hours of hand digging that could be used mowing, instead. Some caution tape and 3′ fiberglass posts could be used to cordon off treatment areas until the weeds are dead and ready to be dug up or tilled. This would reopen the possibility of growing rye and other cover crops that can be killed in February-March for mowing and tilling in late March to April. Like fire, the glyphosate could be used responsibly with great benefit. All you have to remember is not to drink it or shower in it. The folks currently using it around the fence could certainly be trusted to treat problem areas and save labor weeding for other maintenance.
4. Finally, asparagus. It can be eaten well past the point where the tips start to open up. Any shoots that get too big should be left to grow and make energy for the roots. Once the shoots decrease to wooden pencil size after several weeks of harvest they should not be harvested. Harvest should only start in the third year for new plantings. Glyphosate can be used before spear emergence to kill perennial weeds in the patch. Glyphosate is inactivated when it hits soil.
Well, enough. I’ll try to keep the outside of the fence under control with the Jaffe 2002 this summer as I try to bring the annex vineyard into production. I’ll continue to watch the garden experiment as it progresses.
My highest regards to all of you for getting your hands dirty,
Your founder, Cliff Ambers
