I took a un-planned week off from gardening recently. We went down there on a Sunday afternoon to mow and weed, but the mower promptly broke. I was discouraged by the ever-encroaching Johnson grass and apparent lack of growth by the plants that I WANTED to grow and it was really hot, so we went home and had a beer. I didn't go for several days. I was worried that I was already at the point in my gardening-year-cycle where I get discouraged by the weeds and bugs, abandon the garden and just go to harvest. Each year it seems I just reach a point where I throw up my hands and stop working really hard to keep things under control. Eliot Coleman has a great quote about that, he likens not-weeding to not cleaning your living room, and he points out that people don't say "well the living room just got so dirty we stopped using it." Inspired by that idea and the fact that I still have many more exciting seeds to still put in the ground, we persevered and whipped the garden back into shape this week.

Michael picked up the mower and the weedeater from the service shop (Ace Hardware in Berea- excellent service and quick work!) and we were back in business. We spent this past weekend mowing and cleaning up: Michael cleaned the fence line for the first time this year since January. He got an impressive case of poison ivy and I am really curious about how people keep their fence lines clear (Roundup? Cheap labor? Burning?). Here is what it looks like right now-

We still have a bit of work to do, but before he worked on it, you couldn't even walk between the fence and the garlic- it was solid Johnson grass, poison ivy, bittersweet and honeysuckle. It's a big improvement and I was able to weed the garlic. 

The rest of the garden is coming along, the weeds are no longer out-pacing the vegetables. We have been having more rain, here's what I was trying to push the wheelbarrow through on my way to the compost pile:

Ugh. Really makes the case for raised beds! 

I got a lot of good work done today, due to a magical combination of cooler weather, happy kids, good snacks and my motivation. I finally bought more straw (6 bales) and put it all out today. Two whole bales were used in Julian's potato patch, more on that in the next post. I need more newspaper and straw, but I have plenty of other work to do until I round up more. Here's what the weediest section looked like when I got to the garden.

Here's a closer shot of what it looks like now.

There really are lots of happy little plants snugged in there! I used 6 sheets of newspaper under the straw. I lay the straw on pretty thickly. I still need to add wood mulch to the paths, but I could do that until the cows come home. I feel much better about things and took time to walk around and inspect some fruit progress. The grapes:

The blackberries:

Looks like it will be an excellent blackberry crop this year, I am so glad that we can actually get to the berries, we worked really hard to get the bed weeded and mulched. There are also currants and gooseberries ripening and my alpine strawberries have blossoms on them! I've got my gardening mojo back, and even Johnson grass can't slow me down.