Patty,

My DH and I just finished another round of weeding a week ago (before the heat wave), so I feel your pain. The best tool I have for weeding is a dandelion "puller" that belonged to my mother, who gardened for all but the last 10 years of her life. The tool is really old and well used. It looks like a long screwdriver with a forked end. I use it for everything, though.... it gets right under the roots and I can kind of pry the whole plant out. Then the weeds lift up easily... you can even snash the root ball a little to shake off some good dirt.

Early this summer my kids came over and helped us weed and mulch our 65 ft. long perennial bed. The kids fight over that tool... they've named it "the Edie stabber" after their grandmother, Edith.

I wish you a great tool... and maybe some willing helpers? Stay cool!

Molie

Patty, if you get tired of weeding and are looking to take a ride, Country Flower Farms in Middlefield is having their annual summer closing sale. They close every year in mid July and reopen Sept 1st. All plants are 50% off-annuals, perennials, shrubs & trees. It's somewhat picked over but I managed to drop over 30 bucks. Bagged mulch is 30% off and containers are 20% off. I went for the mulch-CFF is one of the few places I know of in the area that sells fine chipped southern pine bark.

I had to do some weeding last night. Yesterday morning I happened to look at my curb garden as I drove by it on my way out to work and gasped in horror at the weed situation. A few of the weeds were the size of small shrubs. A month or so ago I dug many of the plants out of that garden because the street was being resurfaced and I never got around to replanting before the heat set in. Then I backfilled a few of the holes with some bulk compost I had delivered that turned out to be weed infested. You can only imagine. Time to mulch and forget about it til' September.

Sue

Yes!

Get 'em while the soil is still damp: less damage to surrounding 'intentional' plants.

I've been reclaiming veg garden beds this year, came to the conclusion that it's better to keep up with what I've cleared than plant more than I can maintain. Have already been rewarded.

My theory: focus on the best use of today and take pleasure in what you accomplish. Plenty of time to dream of next year come fall & winter.

Best wishes from a fellow bare-footer (mechanics' hand soap works great on pine pitch), Ana

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I actually did weed yesterday as I promised myself, not as thoroughly as I might have but enough. I found out that the weeds practically leaped out, the ground was that moist and pliable. Hurray, a task done easily.

Ana, thanks for the hand soap suggestion...is that something I find in the hardware store? I actually do get pine pitch on my feet, among other things. My feet are so hardened from years of being barefoot that I've actually had glass in my feet and not know it!

Patty, on another glorious gardening day in Connecticut

Molie I really like the dandelion puller too for weeding! It really works great and is the most easy way to get the roots up.

Patty my only suggestion is break the job up into a lot of smaller jobs. If you try to do too much on one day it is too much. I just put the Red Sox on my portable radio and go out a weed a small patch. Makes it go by faster!

Sue

I've been going out in the evening when it's cooler and weeding/deadheading one big cartload of stuff, and then spreading one cartload of mulch where I just weeded. I'm chipping away at the truckload of mulch sitting in the yard, it's just been too hot to really get out there and work for more than an hour or two at a time.

I had 10 cu yd of mulch delivered 2 weeks ago. I started weeding during the week so that I would have the mulch ready to smother the tiny weeds. My main focus was down in the wetlands area where I have about 20 Clethra and needed to get it mulched before they bloom and the bees take over. But each time I come back up the yard, I weep for all the other areas that need weeding.

Just when I thought the heat wave was gone, I had to travel an hour south for a doctor's appt. yesterday so planned on doing a wagon full of mulch this afternoon. But awoke this am with bad shoulder again that needed a cortisone shot right after work.....another day gone to hell, and now it is so muggy and 5 pm the thought of forking mulch and the covering myself with Deet is more than I can take.....it will just have to wait a few more days. After that I need to pull out the tiny weeds in my new woolly thyme circle (100 plants!) but I am thrilled with their progress. They were planted in April.

My incentive to get the whole job done is a friend from Glasgow is arriving Aug. 22nd for a week's visit. Sure don't want him to see a weed patch!! My wonderful neighbor taught me to do a little each day and it is amazing how it does progress. At least now I know I am not alone in bemoaning the rapid weed growth this year and others are chopping away too.

Patty,
I feel your pain (literally my abdomen is still sore). I didn't mulch (12 yards) until June this year and I saved the worst bed for last. By the time I got to it I realized Momma skunk and her babies had moved in. Needless to say this year I am studying the growth rate of "native" plants. kt

Not to hijack your thread, but you all are talking about lots of mulch. Are you just ante'ing up $25-$30/yard and getting it delivered, or do you have any secret tips for the frugal among us?

Thanks!

start a "free mulch ?" thread and i'll have suggestions!
best, mindy

I like to mulch as I weed, so that as I clear a patch of weeds I can prevent having look like I never weeded a week later.

Yes, I ante up $25 bucks a yard for mulch. I made 4 trips in my truck and then gave in and had the last 3 yards delivered 2 weeks ago. I spread one yard so far and need to get the rest down, preferable before Tuesday when my garden club drops by for an open house.

Hi Patty,

Mechanics' hand soap may be sold in your hardware store, for sure in the local auto-supply shop. In a tub like margarine. My current fave brand is Go-Jo (citrus scent), but any will do and all need a follow up soap-and-water rinse.

Ana, who's gardened 19 years under trashy White Pine trees.

Treeskate, I hope your clethra patch is mulched before your friend arrives.... that's one of my favorite shrubs but yikes... the bees!

I don't know how tall yours are, but one technique I use to weed "bee-magnets" in my garden is to turn on the overhead sprinkler, put on my rain gear/hat/old boots, wait until the bees take off and then weed under the sprinklers. Yeah, I get really wet.... yeah, my neighbors think I'm nuts .... but it works. Plus I stay really cool.

Molie

no thanks. It's always more fun to watch other people work, so I'll just sit here in my chair with my umbrella-drink and watch YOU weed.

kidding...my spaces are so run amok with weeds that I come very close to giving up completely. I HAVE managed to weed while doing other things (I can't even psych myself up to actually "weed" cuz then it's a chore, v. if you're just 'rescuing' a plant from a certain demise via weed-choking, it's a charitable venture. See, it's just different.)

molie,

Yes, I finally got all the clethra area mulched! Just in time as I saw some blooms on the smaller shrubs.

I continue to weed especially the garlic mustard. I'm just trying to decide if I can afford another delivery of mulch as the 10 cu yd is almost finished. Yesterday after work I saw a bunny in my fenced in 'special garden' and waited till I saw where he was getting in and out. Seems my metal garden fence gates (I got at Lowes and love the look) have a section on the bottom just big enough for him to push through. I had a small section of rolled up fence in the shed and just twist tied it to the gates at the ground. At least for now it will keep him from getting in/out and nipping my impatiens and rudebeckia.....

This may sound yukky to most of you but I have so many weeds that I've taken to putting them in black trash bags and in the Fall will get someone to gather them all up and take them to the dump. I have no where to compost and with the invasives scattered so much within the other weeds, I just can't always separate them. I do use a separate bucket, plastic bag inside, and use special tongs to pull out all the little poison ivy shoots - that is easier to bag and put in the weekly trash.