{"id":1613,"date":"2010-04-02T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2023-06-07T14:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T18:39:49","slug":"spring-clean-up-in-the-garden-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/spring-clean-up-in-the-garden-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring clean up in the garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 538px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_sVKcBs4vE78\/S7X5H2PqrwI\/AAAAAAAAAwg\/xT0qbOBiE-w\/s320\/CIMG2922.JPG?resize=528%2C396\" alt=\"Spring Garden\" width=\"528\" height=\"396\" border=\"0\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny jumpups, in the foreground of this 2008 photo, would be considered weeds anywhere else. These were too beautiful to pull out of the blueberry patch. Lilac blooms are seen in the background; raspberries which are not in bloom.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Spring clean up in the garden<\/h3>\n<p>Ah spring, time to throw open the windows, air the house out, and start the spring cleaning process. Isn&#8217;t that what we all think about getting done with refreshed energy.\u00a0\u00a0 Indoor cleaning, is reserved for a rainy day, when it is beautiful outside so are we! As soon as we can, my time is spent spring cleaning the gardens.\u00a0 We had a mild winter and didn&#8217;t have a lot of snow accumulation to weight down the larger shrubs, clean up was rather light, thankfully.<\/p>\n<p>Last fall I decided to not mulch as heavily as it seemed to choke my perennials, so I was anxious to see how they overwintered.\u00a0 As the mulch came off, everything looked better than in previous years. The past winter we suffered shrub lost from:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rabbits eating chewing all the bark off any small or low to the ground shrub or tree.<\/li>\n<li>Getting in the way and run over by the snowblower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After the debris and leaves are removed, the next step in the process is to survey each garden section making notes on: damaged growth, pruning projects, plants to divide, and weed infestations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weeding, the dreaded gardener chore<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 I love my gardens, wishing they looked picture perfect all the time. Perfection isn&#8217;t ever the case it seems. \u00a0 When I first started gardening, days were spent stooping and plucking these little invaders from where they didn&#8217;t belong. To a gardener weeds are: things growing where you don&#8217;t want them. Not everything you pull is a weed, I keep a shallow box close by to save things to be transplanted elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now that my gardens are mature, I have very little weeding, which makes me very happy; I also have help.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of course <strong>I use a weed flamer that cooks all that germinates,\u00a0<\/strong>passing over young plants will wilt them quickly. \u00a0 Of all the various tools I have used, I think the weed torch has been on of the biggest time savers for me. Instead of spending hours in one garden I get all my gardens done in a few hours.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_sVKcBs4vE78\/S7X3Y36GZhI\/AAAAAAAAAwY\/nDLUA_DurzE\/s320\/CIMG3030.JPG?resize=240%2C320\" alt=\"Weed Burner spring cleanup\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nThe weed burner I first used, was a smaller hand-held unit, sold by Peaceful Gardens or GrowOrganic.com. Initially I had a Benzomatic, which I loved dally. Going back to Grow Organic, I ordered a Sievert Flamer, after unresolved issues (new units with burners that refused to lite) we, luckily, discovered our local Lowes carried the Benzomatic model.<br \/>\nIf you have large jobs, there is a larger unit which uses a propane tank. The larger tank means that isn&#8217;t quite as portable, thw unit is called the Red Dragon. *update: flamers are now available at Lowe&#8217;s and Amazon<\/p>\n<p>The day I started to using weed burners, I was in love with them, how could you not be. A quick pass over the weeds is enough to wilt them and they will quickly die.\u00a0 The heat expands the water in the plants cells bursting the cells, which stops photosynthesis in the plant.\u00a0 Done in the early stages of germination, it becomes a very quick process, if the plants have grown to be larger than a double pass might be needed.\u00a0 Of course if the plant is large, it is easier to either pull it or cut it off at ground level to avoid disturbing the soil.<\/p>\n<p>Because we don&#8217;t use chemicals the patio will also have seeds germinating in the grooves, the flamer makes quick work of them and with just a quick pass they are gone.\u00a0 Moss growth areas\u00a0 are a thing of the past with a pass or two these plants wither and die..<\/p>\n<p>With that said I am off to do a little torching of the weeds and to play outside in the dirt.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image\" style=\"margin: 0; padding: 0; overflow: hidden;\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li\" style=\"padding: 0; background: none; list-style: none; display: block; float: left; vertical-align: top; text-align: left; width: 104px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0 5px 10px 0;\"><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spring clean up in the garden Ah spring, time to throw open the windows, air the house out, and start the spring cleaning process. Isn&#8217;t that what we all think about getting done with refreshed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[96,177],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden","tag-gardening","tag-organic-gardening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/flamer.jpg?fit=122%2C160&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1qEFP-q1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1567,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/a-sad-day-spent-pulling-up-the-garden-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1613,"position":0},"title":"A sad day spent pulling up the garden","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"October 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A sad day spent pulling up the garden My sad day pulling up the garden started with cutting down the asparagus then starting a new heap style compost pile.\u00a0 Our bunnies will love me this winter as they have a twigs pile beside the compost pile to play in.\u00a0 They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;garden&quot;","block_context":{"text":"garden","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/soil\/garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pulling up garden","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_sVKcBs4vE78\/SsaTCl0byMI\/AAAAAAAAAeo\/qXWpVYsr8Qo\/s200\/asparagus.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1607,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/local-gardening-suppliers-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1613,"position":1},"title":"Local Gardening Suppliers","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"March 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Local Gardening Suppliers Gardening was something I have been doing since a very young girl, I remember stooping over picking row after row of green beans.\u00a0 (I plant pole beans now) Bush beans are low to the ground and I picking until my back ached, even though I was only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;garden&quot;","block_context":{"text":"garden","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/soil\/garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gardener's Supply Vermont","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2010-03-26-14.03.29_edit0_edit0.jpg?fit=746%2C586&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2010-03-26-14.03.29_edit0_edit0.jpg?fit=746%2C586&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2010-03-26-14.03.29_edit0_edit0.jpg?fit=746%2C586&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2010-03-26-14.03.29_edit0_edit0.jpg?fit=746%2C586&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2123,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/mother-earth-garden-planner-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":1613,"position":2},"title":"Mother Earth Garden Planner Update","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"April 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mother Earth Garden Planner Update We are now fast approaching the planting season here in northern Vermont.\u00a0 If you recall from a past post titled: \"Mother Earth News Garden Planner\" I am trying this online planner vs hand written notes. 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Catching things isn't something that typically happens to me, I've stopped working and exposed to so little that I'm assuming my tolerance for cooties has lowered. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Daily Prompts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Daily Prompts","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/social-media\/daily-prompts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bananas in flower via thespruceeats.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thespruceeats.com\/thmb\/2MfJ_2gGkqmL73lQoH-JMvobLyk%3D\/960x0\/filters%3Ano_upscale%28%29%3Amax_bytes%28150000%29%3Astrip_icc%28%29%3Aformat%28webp%29\/Banana-Flower-5794d0285f9b58173b9cf879.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35916,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/planting-bags-for-the-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":1613,"position":4},"title":"Planting Bags for the Garden","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"March 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Switching to planting bags for the garden wasn't a planned improvement as I reused planting containers. My collection of hard black pots were accidentally recycled during a surprise to me cleaning project. 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Planting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Affiliate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Affiliate","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/products\/affiliate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"plastic grow bag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20190426_123326-e1585310069715.jpg?fit=702%2C684&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20190426_123326-e1585310069715.jpg?fit=702%2C684&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20190426_123326-e1585310069715.jpg?fit=702%2C684&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20190426_123326-e1585310069715.jpg?fit=702%2C684&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1615,"url":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/mantis-4-cycle-tiller\/","url_meta":{"origin":1613,"position":5},"title":"Mantis 4 Cycle Tiller","author":"Bodynsoil","date":"April 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Mantis 4 Cycle Tiller Even as we vacationed in Texas with family, I was secretly thinking of my gardens, little did I know I'd soon have a Mantis Tiller doing the work. Digging in the soil, preparing for summer harvest was in my future.\u00a0 Of course first thing was preparing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;garden&quot;","block_context":{"text":"garden","link":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/category\/soil\/garden\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mantis 4 Cycle Tiller","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CIMG5299.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CIMG5299.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CIMG5299.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CIMG5299.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/CIMG5299.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43390,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions\/43390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodynsoil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}