May Madness is HERE

We’re out of April Showers (though there weren’t any) and we’re into … May Madness. Why madness? Because not only is it a full-on time as a gardener with sowing, germinating, transplanting and growing BUT, the weeds go WILD at this time of year.

A neat patch? Turn your back and it’ll be a sprawling mess of thistles, grass and dandelions before you know it! Don’t get me wrong - I’m all for flowering grasses, and towering teasels and eye-popping dandelions. I just don’t want them in and amongst my produce.

Ranunculus in the sunshine

The past weekend was wholly about the market garden and flower farm, and largely focused on weeding. I find weeding quite meditative. I’m not saying it’s my favourite job, but methodically working your way across a patch and pulling out those all too eager native plants is rather calming. And once you’re done it’s frankly quite amazing. Weeding really is one of those activities that has the huge reward at the end; a clean, neat garden.

With little to no rain this YEAR, I was also grateful for almost an entire day of light drizzle on the Friday. We have no mains water on the farm. Everything I have to water the garden comes from water butts (which have been dry for months), bottles of water from home and a natural pond that I pump irrigation across from. But no rain means receding pond water and I’m wary to use too much in fear it’ll dry up during the summer. Not good for the garden or the wildlife. Rain, or lack of it, actually will really affect my bottom line as it’ll result in poor growing. So I was very happy to see it coming. Even better, it made the weed pull a lot easier too.

Weeding the flower farm

I’ve worked my way through the flower farm and quite honestly, I was surprised how many weeds there were! I mean, I’m not weed-blind but it was astonishing quite how many came out. Afterwards, it’s always a pleasure to see the clean lines of the farm. It also helps me see at a glance what’s going on. Weeds hide a multitude of sins; short-stemmed flowers, damaged plants and dry patches, for example. I must try and remain on top of things this year because it definitely helps! I must say, one bonus of the weeds, however, is that I can compare the lush growth on the edge of the beds to that further away indicating some seriously good fertility in the soil I’m making my beds out of.

An male orange-tip takes a snack on some purple hesperis

You’ll notice there are no images of the vegetable garden … that’s because it’s a mess! However, if you really want to take the grand tour, then see the video below which is a full and frank look at weeds galore.

I’m pretty happy with how the market garden and flower farm is coming on though. For Year 1, I’m pretty pleased!