Garden Lesson #3 - water BEFORE you try to pull the weeds/grass!

The garden is coming along. I just refuse to give up, even though it's more work than I ever could have imagined. I'm about zucchini-ed out, having eaten them roasted, fried, sauted, baked in bread, etc. so I'm excited that the garden is about to start producing some other stuff - watermelon, a butternut squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and I just planted some hot salsa peppers and bush beans...we'll see if they take!

Anyway, onto the next gardening lesson...and this one is a real gem - if you have a lot of weeds to deal with, your efforts to pull those suckers out will NOT be in vain if you water the area first and then come back to it later that evening or the next day. Case in point - my garden, which is covered in grass anywhere plants aren't growing (it's NOT Johnson grass, by the way...but still an annoying grass that needs to be dug out to be properly removed). Yesterday I went to dig and lay straw and as I was working my way around the perimeter one of the garden volunteers came up and said "you didn't water; water now and pull tomorrow." (He's a really nice guy, originally from Ghana, so he can sound brief and rude but is actually very nice and helpful!) so I did that and then returned this morning and was able to get LOTS of the grass out with much less effort. I still had to dig, beat the top soil off and throw into a growing pile, but it was most definitely worth it to water first. Also, since the grass isn't Johnson grass, I can let it dry and then use it for mulch. Another plus. I can't stress it enough, by the way, that mulching will safe you MANY hours of weeding. DO IT! Just let the grass dry first.

Here's proof that the garden is still growing! The picture below is of my two new pepper plants.

There is a watermelon hiding in those leaves!

Here's a picture of the east side of my garden, with my new straw in a place and a yellow squash plant that is trying to crawl away :-)

Here's my harvest for the day...three yellow squash and a cucumber.

Here's a full shot of my garden, from the north side. By bush beans are planted in the far right corner...right now it just looks like dirt, haha.