Goodbye bermuda grass pathways

Last fall, we decided to take out the last of the grass in our backyard. We had mixed feelings about this because although the grass was attractive when green and nice to walk on barefoot, it was time consuming to mow and edge and futile to keep from invading the raised beds.

We sprayed the grass with glyphosphate, which only works when the grass is green and growing, last fall. Although I'm not a big fan of chemicals and prefer avoiding their use when possible, there are times when they are necessary and this is one of them. Other methods, such as solarizing the soil with clear plastic, aren't as effective in getting rid of the grass and tend to kill off beneficial soil organisms.  Here's an article from the Maricopa Cooperative Extension Service giving more details about the safety and efficiency of this method, along with more detailed instructions.

The glyphosphate did a pretty good jub of killing the grass, because we only saw a few patches of green this spring, which we resprayed. We then scalped the dead grass as closely as possible, applied pre emergent herbicide, and covered the pathways with 3/8 inch screened gravel.  Rain is predicted for the weekend (the first in over two months) so hopefully we'll get enough to thoroughly water in the pre-emergent.

Pea-pickings

I'm not sure of the etymology, but in the South "pea pickin" is sometimes used euphemistically-as in  "Bless your pea-pickin' heart" or "Not a pea-pickin' thing". Anyway, I've been picking plenty of sugar snap peas this week.

It's a challenge to find them all in the tangled vines, because these are the vining rather than the bush kind I thought I planted. Erroneous planting has not impacted their productivity from what I can tell. I prepared about six quarts for the freezer yesterday, along with another batch we enjoyed with dinner using a variation of this recipe.
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Petunia border

These are probably the best looking of the petunias I planted last fall as a border around one of the raised beds. I think the small white flowers are something in the chrysanthemum family. I planted the original plant several years ago, and they have been reseeding themselves and appearing each spring ever since. The larkspur and the red leaf lettuce are also volunteers. In this photo you can also see cilantro, planted last fall, and newly planted tomato and basil plants.

Under the lemon tree

We recently revamped this area under the lemon tree, which had originally consisted of two tiers. We combined the two tiers into one, higher tier, and planted onions and potatoes. The nasturtiums and hollyhocks are volunteers. I'd originally planted nasturtiums as tier borders, and they have reseeded and spread. I doubt this area will ever be free of hollyhocks after the mistake I made several years ago of using homemade compost made of ground up hollyhock stalks.

Citrus is starting to bloom and fill the air with fragrance, and the lemon tree is no exception, so here's my earworm for the day: "Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."

Unless, of course, you add sugar and make lemonade, in which case it is very tasty.

Compost tea the easy way

We've never been very successful with composting. We never seem to be able to keep the compost pile sufficiently moist, so the things we put in it just dessicate rather than decompose. Our latest experiment with kitchen scraps is to throw them in a Vitamix with some water and let its 2-horsepower motor blend away on the Smoothie cycle. (For comparison, the small wood chipper we bought a couple of years ago has a 1/2-horsepower motor.) It does a fine job of chopping up coffee filters along with the grounds, along with banana peels, vegetable peelings, and other kitchen waste. Then I just pour the slurry around in the garden.

The thevetia is out

We finished taking out the thevetia today, and this is its root. Now to start looking for fruit trees to put in its place! I missed the window for ordering the desert-adapted cherry trees from Phoenix Permaculture Guild this year, so we'll have to check various nurseries. If we can't find any relatively soon, we'll put in another early-bearing peach and possibly another kind of plum. Our April/May bearing peach tree is declining, and although our Santa Rosa plum seems healthy enough, we have yet to get any edible fruit from it. Or maybe try this idea using fig trees, which would provide a nice tropical look around the pond.

Weeding my own garden

Peaches, nasturtium, and larkspur are beginning to bloom, but so are spring weeds. They seem to sprout up full grown overnight, and I don't know where they are finding the moisture to grow like this because the soil was pretty dry. (Better check the drip lines before the really hot weather sets in) It's not possible to get rid of this particular spring rite of passage, because the seeds blow in from all over the neighborhood, but I try to get rid of them before they flower and dump the bulk of their seeds where they stand.

As I sometimes do, I started thinking while I was weeding. One of my pet peeves is the tendency of some people to point out the failings of others.  I find it particularly egregious when religious people feel it is their duty to warn others they are sinning in some particular way, usually a sin that they themselves aren't tempted to commit. I can speak only from my own faith perspective and study of the Bible, but from what I understand from the teachings of Jesus, I've got enough to do weeding my own garden. I think that if one reads the Bible and finds things to apply to other people, he or she is reading it the wrong way.

Matthew 7 quotes Jesus as saying, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye". That seems pretty clear to me.

 I'll never get all the weeds out of my garden, or out of my life, so I'd better concentrate on weeding my own garden and making it into something beautiful. If someone admires my garden and wants to know how I did it, I'll be glad to tell them.