Thursday, May 3, 2012

Chop and Drop Revolution

Serendipity is a wonderful thing!



Yesterday I was looking for something to do, so I walked out the front door.  To my left was a spot in the yard that always ends up being an irritation to me.  It's between the water tank/greenhouse and the woodpile.  It's nearly impossible to mow and always grows up in ragweed.  The ragweed was getting its foothold and all of us are pretty loath to spend time mowing right now seeing as how there is so much planting to have fun with.  I thought about the ragweed a bit and how much I dislike it when it gets big.

Then I walked back inside and got a machete.  In about fifteen minutes I had all of the ragweed cut down and added to the other mulch in the garden.

What an amazing thing!  A nemesis weed turned into a soil enrichment and weed barrier!

It was so easy that I started going to other difficult parts of the yard cutting down weeds and adding them to the garden mulch as well.  In less than an hour I had cut enough mulch to thickly cover one of the wide walking paths.  And here's the best part . . . The whole time I was removing these weeds I could hear the birds sing and talk to my husband and son, even when they were halfway across the yard!

Then Joe did a wonderful thing.  He bent an old tool that was hiding in the shop into the most wonderful "Children of the Corn" style weed cutter.  He sharpened the blade to a razor edge and it is amazing.  Half the effort of the already wonderful machete.  Here I am with my favorite new garden tool.

O.K. so it isn't the awesomest picture, but it is definitely the awesomest tool!  (Helpful hint:  When using a machete or a tool like this one to cut weeds, you will expend much less energy if you hold the top of the plants you are cutting.)  A massive benefit to this tool is that you can cut in very close to plants without girdling their bark or cutting them down.

3 comments:

mamallamasmama said...

Sort of like holding someone's hair for a better cut. Just joking!!! I just couldn't help myself. I've been mulching too. the garden by the shed is done - planting and all. Now as long as the pepper works maybe I'll have a nice yield. I am going to have to learn how to make strawberry jam of I manage to collect all the berries that are showing. I'll have to cover them soon against the birds. They are getting big but not red yet.

abbie said...

Nice!! Sounds like a handy stress-reduction tool, too ; )

Barb Schanel said...

Very stress reducing!