The garden is finally feeling like a garden. I’ve got onions in on the far left. In the central of the three dark beds is a mixed bed: spinach, carrots, lettuce and some radishes. They’re all coming up from seed and pretty tiny yet. I don’t plant much in the way of radishes because the boss doesn’t like them. She’s prejudiced.
On the right I have a bed and a half of garlic and some overwintered spinach. I’ve been eating this since early March. It’s outrageously delicious.
Some day I’m going to build myself a hoop house and I’ll be eating spinach even earlier.
I was rooting around near the spinach this weekend pulling up some of the abundant crop of maple seedlings when I happened upon some more tenacious weeds.
For scale, I’ve placed this specimen near one of New England’s few remaining pumas. That’s one mean weed! Looking at that long white stolon that trails out to the right it becomes clear why these can be so pernicious.
At each of these nodes another shoot is emerging along with roots. These too will send out runners.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I don’t like lawns. I don’t pretend to know much about the common grass species, but I believe this is Bermuda grass. A grass that people intentionally plant because it covers ground so well.
I find more satisfaction in pulling these up than with most weeds. I feel like I’m fighting the man instead of nature. The stolons pull out easily. Often if I get ahold of one in the loose garden soil I can follow it out to the evil clone that spawned it in the yard. Still I hate them.
I spend a fair amount of time dreaming of eliminating grass from my yard — blueberry bushes, strawberry beds, puma habitat and chicken runs would all be more attractive as far as I’m concerned. And it would stick it to the Man.
Of course I could always get a goat. That’d really get the Man’s….
Speaking of, here’s a funny video about goats.
