For some reason I can’t add the photo above.

Thanks for the encouragement, bea 🙂

I've been neglecting a lot of yardwork and gardening chores these past 2 years and it's rather depressing. Hoping I can do more going forward. I've managed to clean up my vegetable bed and plant some tomatoes and I started some greens in containers. I'm envious of that blood orange tree - I had a little one that never made it due to greening.

How will you weed the bed?

Jane, I hope to have very little if any weeding to do. I planted everything pretty close so hopefully not much space for weeds. When I lived up north I had several cottage style beds and that worked well for weed control. In a few spots where there is open space I planted patches of monkey grass which tends to keep weeds down. As a last resort any weeds that manage to live will meet their demise by my hubby’s hand.

Long-handled implements. I am handy enough with a shovel that I usually avoid damage. For smaller, sometimes I improvise a long-handled implement from a short-handled one.

I have a large oak and their seeds wind up everywhere, even in my orchid pots. They are impossible to pull out. I have trouble getting down to weed also. I try to grow without any chemicals, but I decided I have to do something to get some weeds which will not pull out.

Bea, I also plant closely but these weeds are horrible, they come up in the middle of the plants. I have those hijacker weeds which are impossible to pull out in my pots! They are in my rose bushes. I bought a small bottle of Round-Up (which I'm embarrassed to admit), and put some in a cup and use a brush to paint the oak leaves and others I can't pull up. I use a brush so I can just get the leaves without effecting the plants I grow. I did that with the tons of ferns which grow in my orchids taking over the pots. I'm careful not to get any near the plants I want.

It helps, but truly doesn't stop them from coming back.

Jane

Bea, that's what I have been trying to do, create carefree garden beds. The perennial/bulb bed is pretty self-regulating, except for the sweet potato vine that I use for a groundcover and have to cut back from the sidewalk a few times. The other beds are always needing something, though. I'm getting rid of all the ones that take too much work.