Looking Back on 2009

Then in October/November I planted all those new plants and moved some stuff around...Totally can't wait to see it this spring.

That combo is stunning! I can't wait to see it too!

very nice Jen.The collage looks great

Very nice, Jen!! I especially like the shot with the monthly progression. Very clever idea! I also like Polly's advice about the straw. I should try that in NH this summer.

why not just pull the weeds?

My gardens are so large, and we're surrounded by farms. I would be weeding 24 hours a day and not keep up. I could have smaller gardens, but I prefer not to.

And some people like to weed, and some really dont. I'm kind of in the middle, but when it's iris sale time that's all I'm doing and the weeds would be way out of hand.

i learned the straw thing from another iris grower, and it worked so well for me last year. Once you've had the straw on for awhile the weeds are so few, you can remove it.

Dont you get weeds from straw?Polly.
I'm cencerned about all the horse manure we spread last fall.

weeding is torture especially in the new beds i build from the dirt that is brought in - i let it go a bit until the weeds are bigger and easier to rip out - no need to use tweezers

i was thinking the same thing joann - unless it is the cooked straw that kills the seed heads

Hay has lots of weed seeds. Straw usually does not and packs down enough to smother any from growing. Getting real straw and not a mix can be a problem in some areas.

I guess the wheat and oat harvesting methods these days leaves little seed heads.

Near the coast here we can get salt marsh hay--no weed seeds.

that is what we use in the veggy garden

Real straw, not hay. Or salt marsh hay or pine straw, which we can't get. I've had no, or very little seeding from the straw, depending on where I got it from.

Here's my understanding, now keep in mind I'm not a hay farmer. Straw is the stalk of grain bearing plants, after the grain is harvested, hay is the whole plant, and will have seeds if they were present at the time of harvesting, which they normally are when hay is harvested for feed.

And Patti is right, that straw really packs down, keeping seeds out. And if a seed does sprout it's easily pulled from the straw without loosening up the ground. Loosening the ground causes even more weeds to sprout. And somehow it seems to build beautiful dirt under the straw.

Yourr right Polly.
Straw is whats left after the wheat or oats have been beaten from the heads.
Hey is usually grasses mixed with Timothy a terrible weed but great feed for cows.

Good for horses too.

... and scarecrows

And little bunny rabbits!