Ooh, goody! Substack has stuff other than covid! I hope time will come when my mind is not completely consumed by all of the viral and mandate madness. As for the weeds, I'm going to be a renegade and say that you should consider leaving some! (if you don't already) I went down a deep hole of permaculture youtubing in the last year and my approach to the garden has now changed to "leave 'em and see what they do"! That, and a determination to leave the soil as untouched as possible for all the soil-crittur cities of fungi and bacteria. I have delighted in seeing the dandelions pop up and am now using their leaves to make an infusion every day to try and repair my covid-addled and jab-forced body. The clover is also left alone and I can't for the life of me think why I ever thought of it as a weed - given that it covers the soil, fixes nitrogen, and is really pretty. That aside, though, I'm sure you know this, but no doubt need to keep the voracious and inedible ones at bay - so there's no judging! I have been impressed by the dedication of people like Ray Archuleta in his mission to help regenerate the soils of America and am hopeful that soon there will be a sea change in agriculture towards more regenerative farming, with the (hopefully) attendant carbon sequestration that that could mean.
It's a quackgrass (European invasive species) problem, Ann -- which has sharp, spear-like rhizomes that are just encouraged to grow even more densely by too vigorous a cultivation. This fall I ended up using my tiller to lightly bring the rhizomes up to the surface so hopefully most of them will dessicate and/or freeze this winter. This, I found, is an established approach that some non-herbicidal farmers use with the stuff. I've also got winter rye now planted (and still growing) on top of the lightly cultivated quackgrass, and am hoping that in the spring that -- and with alfalfa spring growth -- the rye and alfalfa will further hinder the quackgrass's prior enthusiasm. Fortunately, nearly all of my second year alfalfa crowns seem to have survived the fall's light quackgrass cultivation. I'll recultivate the ground after alfalfa and rye hay cutting in late spring, and then interplant after that first cutting with teff (annual hay species), to further try to hold a pillow down on the face of the quackgrass. It really didn't help my hay species that quackgrass was not at all phased by the past summer's droughty conditions -- and that our soil is very sandy, therefore droughty by nature even when rainfall is normal.
As to the COVID preoccupation on Substack and elsewhere -- I still think all the COVID excitement is a cloud with a distinct silver lining, in that it shows the current crop of humans how very differently humans can act under stress, and how nearly totally blind nearly all current government politicians and administrators are to what is actually occurring in the world. Weaknesses and strengths are being exposed right now that would have largely gone unnoticed without all the excitement. Personally, I've been learning a lot about the human body and human health I wouldn't have bothered to look into had all the COVID excitement not occurred, and believe this increased personal knowledge will be very useful as time goes on.
I admit, however, that I've quit reading most Substack material that complains one way or the other about all the political and scientific misjudgments and functional malapropisms that are occurring. Getting very repititious, on all sides of the matter. Put a fork in it, I think -- it is done and those who have been paying attention got the point(s).
Ooh, goody! Substack has stuff other than covid! I hope time will come when my mind is not completely consumed by all of the viral and mandate madness. As for the weeds, I'm going to be a renegade and say that you should consider leaving some! (if you don't already) I went down a deep hole of permaculture youtubing in the last year and my approach to the garden has now changed to "leave 'em and see what they do"! That, and a determination to leave the soil as untouched as possible for all the soil-crittur cities of fungi and bacteria. I have delighted in seeing the dandelions pop up and am now using their leaves to make an infusion every day to try and repair my covid-addled and jab-forced body. The clover is also left alone and I can't for the life of me think why I ever thought of it as a weed - given that it covers the soil, fixes nitrogen, and is really pretty. That aside, though, I'm sure you know this, but no doubt need to keep the voracious and inedible ones at bay - so there's no judging! I have been impressed by the dedication of people like Ray Archuleta in his mission to help regenerate the soils of America and am hopeful that soon there will be a sea change in agriculture towards more regenerative farming, with the (hopefully) attendant carbon sequestration that that could mean.
It's a quackgrass (European invasive species) problem, Ann -- which has sharp, spear-like rhizomes that are just encouraged to grow even more densely by too vigorous a cultivation. This fall I ended up using my tiller to lightly bring the rhizomes up to the surface so hopefully most of them will dessicate and/or freeze this winter. This, I found, is an established approach that some non-herbicidal farmers use with the stuff. I've also got winter rye now planted (and still growing) on top of the lightly cultivated quackgrass, and am hoping that in the spring that -- and with alfalfa spring growth -- the rye and alfalfa will further hinder the quackgrass's prior enthusiasm. Fortunately, nearly all of my second year alfalfa crowns seem to have survived the fall's light quackgrass cultivation. I'll recultivate the ground after alfalfa and rye hay cutting in late spring, and then interplant after that first cutting with teff (annual hay species), to further try to hold a pillow down on the face of the quackgrass. It really didn't help my hay species that quackgrass was not at all phased by the past summer's droughty conditions -- and that our soil is very sandy, therefore droughty by nature even when rainfall is normal.
As to the COVID preoccupation on Substack and elsewhere -- I still think all the COVID excitement is a cloud with a distinct silver lining, in that it shows the current crop of humans how very differently humans can act under stress, and how nearly totally blind nearly all current government politicians and administrators are to what is actually occurring in the world. Weaknesses and strengths are being exposed right now that would have largely gone unnoticed without all the excitement. Personally, I've been learning a lot about the human body and human health I wouldn't have bothered to look into had all the COVID excitement not occurred, and believe this increased personal knowledge will be very useful as time goes on.
I admit, however, that I've quit reading most Substack material that complains one way or the other about all the political and scientific misjudgments and functional malapropisms that are occurring. Getting very repititious, on all sides of the matter. Put a fork in it, I think -- it is done and those who have been paying attention got the point(s).