Friday, February 25, 2011

Mortal Enemies Episode 1


Right now on the farm we're gearing up for the next crop, which is strawberries.  We planted them in October and they have been dormant in the field waiting for it to warm up enough to start growing.  Well, as we can all feel, it's getting to that time.  However, along with the strawberries come those pesky problems that all farmers fear.

Weeds and Deer.

These are the mortal enemies of farmers everywhere, and yesterday I decided to put my battle gear on and fight the hard fight against one of these foes, weeds.

I figured, hey, I'm at home, I need some exercise, why not?  It's reasonably warm, The Boy is dying for fresh air, why not let him expend some energy and me burn some calories while maybe saving us a couple bucks (since gas is $3.30 a gallon!!!).  Well, it's not as easy as it looks. 

First off, the plants are set in a 2 in diameter hole in black plastic.  My strategy for the battle was to go through all the little pant holes and pull the weeds out.  I did about three rows a week ago, but I've been out of town/it's been colder/I'm just lazy, so I knew what to expect.  Secondly, the weed is a fickle foe.  Some of them pull up no problem.  Some of them break off at the root, so really, you have accomplished nothing, kind of like WWI.  Some of them attach themselves to the berry, so you accidentally pull off leaves with the weed or in one case, you uproot a berry plant (don't tell The Husband, I performed first aid: I replanted it and crossed my fingers).  The real problem with all this is you are working within that 2 inch hole.  You don't want to make it larger, it will cause problems down the road, however it is sometimes impossible to accomplish this feat. 


One of our medium sized plants, weed free

First Blooms

All in all, between myself The Boy (who thought it was great fun to pull off the dead leaves [see pic 1] and crunch them up, sometimes it really doesn't take much to entertain him) and The Husband who came in at the last minute to help, we got half the field weeded.  We fought the good fight and while the weed will come back to fight another day we have weakened it's stronghold in the field.

Stay tuned for more on the second mortal enemy...The Deer.

1 comment:

  1. I love your blog! I love that you have found a way to make things work! I love that you are so happy! Life is good, isn't it!? Lynette

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