Where has Nikki been?

Weeding, that's where. Remember when I posted about my love for weed paper? Well, phooey, says I. A few weeks ago, I walked into the garden and noticed the distinct feeling of walking on pillows. Pillows? My husband and I pulled back the weed paper and and found this...

BEFORE pulling back the paper

After pulling back the paper

More of the weedy interlopers

For the next few weeks, our precious evening hour with light went to weeding the garden. You know the hour I'm talking about...the one from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. That hour when the kids are in bed and there is still just enough light left to do something outside. So rather than enjoy it and pick some veggies, we spent it elbow deep in wretched weeds.

The pictures aren't really doing it justice. I was too disgusted with the whole thing to take enough pictures, but you get the idea. Our 20 x 20 foot garden was truly carpeted with weeds wherever there was weed paper.

Of course there is a happy ending. But you'll have to tune in tomorrow for that story...

The truth about weed paper and little kids

As I said in an earlier post, there just isn't a better way to keep out the weeds than by covering the whole garden in weed paper. After spending one whole growing season weeding every night, we'll just never go back to that. Of course, for all that lack of work, you have to pay, right? This is the payment. A garden full of silver plastic that looks like giant trash bags. Don't get me wrong, I love not picking the weeds, but it's the paper and the rough cut holes for the plants that get me down. We've talked about covering it in bark, and I admit that would improve the appearance. But we have an 18-month old who already loves to fill her pail with whatever she can find and dump it all over the driveway. Do I really need to challenge her to transfer a garden full of bark? Look closely at the picture and think about it, too...a whole garden, covered in something that isn't dirt. And there lies the real reason for the plastic. No dirt. We can grab our little colanders and baskets, go into the garden at a moment's notice and pick the veggies of the day without getting even one speck of dirt on us that will follow us into the house. Now there's some justification I can live with.