Weeding

Just spent a good  hours weeding away in my garden - I'm totally buggered. I got have 2 cubic metres of mulch I need to pour onto the flower beds to prevent the weeds from coming up.

Of course it won't prevent ALL of them from coming up. Some will still manage to break through. But the impact of the mulch will kill a lot of the weeds and also make it easier for me to pull the shoots when they poke their heads out of the ground.

To do it right you also need to place wet soggy newspaper underneath the mulch - on top of the weeds, top soil. But I don't buy newspapers and the local library is being run by an old bitch who refuses to pass me any of the old newspapers - which is all placed into their secured paper waste bin. Argh, I'm not going to sell the  papers you stupid woman. I'd make more money pulling the tyres off your car and flogging them off. Geez.

Anyway, I buy my mulch from Col Smith. 1 cubic metre cost about $65. I buy a mix of two types. Eucy and something called Finebark - so 2 cubic metres, roughly one truck load. Its a good combo. The birds have a problem trying to dig at it. Total cost is $140 including delivery. Its a do-able amount for me.

What's a cubic metre? Well, pile it up and its roughly the size or volume of an office desk.

Placing it on the garden bed gives me a bit of respite. The weeds will eventually poke through in 3 weeks time or so and generally they are easier to remove due to their need to push through the mulch to get to the sun.

Reading about gardening is much more easier. I find a few good links on gardening I'd thought I'd share you you.

A good way to turn your compost pile without resorting to back breaking shovelling. As you know, we're suppose to turn over the compost pile to help it disintegrate. But its tough trying to turn the bloody pile over. This guy has come up with an easier way to do that.


http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/more-compost-less-work.aspx

Compost tea
 http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/jury-still-out-on-compost-tea.aspx
 http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx

In my next post, I'll share more thoughts on making compost tea.