Shock and Awe Gardening

The weeds started invading this week. We had a couple of very wet weeks and now it's warmed up and I've got thousands of small weeds everywhere. I could have kept up with the hoeing and I wouldn't be facing this problem but I don't have a garden so I can do work. It's even gotten beyond what I can manage with the Giant-Magic-Marker-o-Death.

check out the weeds around the broccoli

So last night, I sprayed everything that isn't a garden plant with Roundup herbicide. I was careful not to spray anything I wanted to keep alive, but there may have been some collateral damage. That's the sad reality of war. I learned the hard truth of war a long time ago, sitting on my couch watching war movies. War is not pretty. I won't know the casualty count for a few days but at least the weeds are going to be dead.

It's hard to tell what's a
weed and what's a spring green

The strawberries are still going strong. We've had strawberry shortcake, strawberry milkshakes, strawberry ice cream, and plain strawberries. I pick a few every morning on my way to the car and a few when I get home from work on my walk to the house. I figured out what's eating them on the vine, I've seen several birds helping themselves but they have only done a small bit of damage so far and If I kill a few there will always be more to take their place so for the time being, the birds get a pass.

My few blackberry bushes have been in full flower for a couple of weeks. I think there will be a good crop of blackberries when they come on.

a blackberry bush (hard to see because of
all the weeds... they'll all be dead
in a few days though.)

Something's been taking nips out of my peaches. Several had small holes weeping sap last night where some bug must have bitten through the skin. I have no idea what did this but I knew I had to take decisive action. I carefully mixed a cocktail of malathion, benefrin, and imadicloprid. The only approach that works when dealing with garden terrorists is my "kill em' fast, kill em' hard, and kill em' all" approach to gardening.

bugs that mess with me wish they were dead.

There was no more insect damage this morning so whatever it was, it isn't anymore.

wounded peaches recovering comfortably at home