Update...the War On Chickweed...One Month Later...

This is a happy story...

One month ago today, I posted about  the downside of a mild winter. Chickweed had overtaken my flower bed along the meadow fence. Granted, it's at a spot where weeds from the meadow can easily creep in, but I'd never had it look this bad in the spring.  Using mushroom mulch didn't help a thing, as it not only builds up the soil and feeds the good plants, but it feeds the weeds as well.

One month later, I'm happy to show you pictures, not only because it took a lot of hard work, but because I'm flower happy this time of year!

Most of the iris came from a former neighbor who grew hundreds of varieties to sell, as did the peonies.  The roses, which are struggling a bit, came from another neighbor.  That's just one of the beauties of perennials...you can enjoy the flowers as well as the memories of friendship!

I know...the edges of this flower bed aren't straight...and that bugs me.  A lot!  Actually, the intended edge is straight...and mulched.  You can see it if you look closely. However, the chickweed also crawled into the grass.  The weed killer that I used worked quite fine...except that now I need to seed some new grass to fill in the gaps.

Here we go...

The peonies will be open any day now.  Their fragrance is wonderful! (and much nicer than what I'm smelling from the fields right now!)

Do you see who photo bombed my picture?!

Iris and peonies don't like mulch, as their roots need to be on the drier side...so I mulched around them, leaving some space around each plant.  It doesn't look as tidy as I prefer, but whatever keeps them happy!  I also used regular bark mulch this year, hoping that it well better hold back the chickweed.

My war on chickweed isn't over.  It never will be, this close to the meadow...but for now I'd say this battle has been won!

Sometimes I Think I'm a Little Crazy...

When we moved to the farm 18 years ago, I decided that I wanted to grow some perennials.  Did I go about it in a reasonable fashion?  Nope!

I was inspired by my Aunt Joanne, who has a beautiful perennial border along the edge of her garden...I started collecting plants...I got numerous pieces of favorites from friends' gardens, or at perennial swaps.  Also, Jim's cousin has a greenhouse, and my car would just automatically turn in whenever I drove past...I had no control over it!

Over the past number of years, the perennial bed has grown.  And grown.  So has the work load.

About two weeks ago, I started to clean up the border.  There were tons of little annoying weeds, some dead wood from last fall, and the edge of the border just kind of merged with the yard.  I worked up the soil with my digger and edged along the yard...

 Then this week I made the first of several treks to a local farm that sells mulch by the cubic yard.  I do it the "lazy" way.  They would deliver the 8 or 9 yards that I need, but then I'd have to shovel it twice...once off the pile into my cart, and again onto the garden. I prefer to load it on the back of the truck, and move the truck around as I need to.  This saves me a lot of time and sore muscles!

 I use their mushroom mulch.  I like this so much better than shredded bark mulch...it's much better for the soil...and it's much less expensive.  I've been told that in some areas it's more expensive, but since we live relatively close to mushroom farms here in southeastern Pennsylvania, it's readily available, and about half the price of bark mulch!

Here's part of the finished border.  There's still a row of shrubs to the right, between the border and the garden that I need to do something about...the jury's still out on what I mulch that with.  I had originally used chopped up branches from when we had our trees trimmed a few years ago, but that has since disappeared...

Iris don't like to be mulched, but roses do, so I pile it up around the rose bushes, and keep it back several inches from the Iris plants...

I started a new patch of strawberries this spring from my neighbor's runners, and I mulched them heavily...

Several years after I started the perennial border by the garden, we pulled out a bunch of yew bushes around the house.   Of course I had to fill in that area with perennials as well!  This bed will need to wait until next week for mulch.  I ran out of steam, and daylight today...

It's a satisfying feeling to be almost finished.  This time of year it looks so happy...

But just wait until mid summer when it's steaming hot and humid, and the weeds need to be tended to.  All that mulch helps, but unfortunately isn't a sure fix for the whole season!

Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy...why did I plant so many flowers!  The whole spring cleanup seems to be a bigger job every year.  I remember some years, I would mulch all day long, and still be going strong by evening.  This year, I did two scoops each day and called it quits.  I guess it was due in part to the fact that I'm fighting off a cold.

Yep, that must be it.

It couldn't be that I'm just getting old!