Cardboard and Hayday

 So the last I shared here; I was feeling a tad overwhelmed by weeds. 

I knew come rain or shine I'd just have to bite the bullet and start chippin away at it.  

I put on my grubbiest clothes... threw this gray hair back in a ponytail; 

pulled a hat over my head and rolled up the sleeves.  

Weeding in the rows went very well.  It's always easier to weed wet.  

That should be slapped  on a sign somewhere.  

Weed wet! 

 After pullin weeds,

I hoed around the plants.

Talk about sweet satisfaction .  

 A day or two after that; it was time to fire up the old tiller.  

I think I listened to 1, and 2 Thessalonians at least three times.

That's some good tillin n weedin.  

The past few years I've bought bundles of olde newspapers to lay all across the garden then mulched with straw.  It works pretty well and the soil is improving greatly!  The best part is less weeds to pull.  -- Having our own mechanics shop we get tons of cardboard  boxes.  They get stored  in our livestock trailer until we can do something with them and I've just kept thinking about em.  One of my friends told me she's  used cardboard for mulch at times so I thought I'd give it a try.  My biggest worry though; is snakes.  I kept thinking about all the pockets in the cardboard that don't lay down very well being a good place for snakes.  (ugh)  --But the thing is... I have to watch for snakes anyways?... so before using the boxes;  I googled it.  The pros far outweighed the cons... so off to the stock trailer I went.  

 I brought up  two truckloads.  

That's a lot of boxes.  

 One of my dear Uncles sent me this awesome knife this Spring.  

I cannot tell you how well it worked for me.  

I love this knife!!

Then I started laying out the cardboard... 

and ... also dug up a whole pickup load of old hay off the ground from round bales  that our horse n donkeys wasted.  I put that all around all the plants. Tomatoes, cucumbers, flowers,... etc. 

 Once I got to this point .. let me tell ya... I started having major second thoughts.  

Oh good grief what have I done?  

It just looked sooooo  bad.  There were places that the cardboard didn't lay down very well and 

oh man.  I really had my doubts, but ... just kept going... and I'm  so glad I did.  

 --Adding straw on top is 

always where the magic happens. 

The more I walked on it the better it got and 

after it rains a couple times I can tell it will work just fine.

-- I did pen all the chickens up so they can't raise havoc and 

I'm hoping the cardboard will make it  harder for the armadillos to tear up too.  

Never fails once it gets hot n dry ... armadillos  find the garden and start rootin like little pigs.   

The bunnies and I have also been goin round and round.  

They've had   a real sweet tooth for potted  petunias and these trellised pole beans.

The beans are replanted and  new sprouts are coming up. 

Can't wait til pretty green  beans are covering them.  

 Feels sooo good to have gotten the hard parts done this week.  

 The temperature has been cool here;  

but our days  will heat up before we know it.  

From what I've been told; Myguy's Grampa used to record the weather every day in a ledger.  

As much as I love to journal; I tend to forget the temperature.  

  I try to record garden snippets in this traveler's notebook.  

 It helps to look back and see what worked and what didn't.  

Could be; using up all these cardboard boxes might be something to look forward to again next season?  

Time will tell.

xoxo Leaon Mary