Weed 'em and Reap

July is very much weeding season at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We certainly cultivate and weed in other months, but July always sees us pulling out the most volume of vegetative matter for our compost piles.  Some people might suggest that we should do better at staying on top of the weeds than we do and we would certainly agree.  However, if fields are too wet to work, then fields are too wet to work.  The net result is usually more weeds than you would usually like to see.  And, with a June that saw twice the normal rainfall on a schedule that rarely gave us time to cultivate, we were going to pay in July. 

A row of red cabbage (and napa cabbage on the far end), weeded and cultivated!

Typically, when we go out to do weed removal, we take one of our hayracks/carts out with various tools including wheel hoes, hand hoes, rakes and, of course, something to play a little music.  Rosie the tractor often makes an appearance with one of the cultivating implements and Barty (the BCS walk-behind) may come out to play as well.  The selection of tool depends on everything from the condition of the soil, size of the weeds, type of crop, available workers and inclination of the farmers.  Hand pulling always makes an appearance on the farm every July, despite our intentions to reduce that need.  All you have to do is look at the bed to the left of the cabbage.  There are supposed to be onions in there.  Ups.

There are always challenges in farming that have to do with the weather.  It's simply part of the job to deal with it.  But, sometimes you just look at things and ask if you even had a chance in the first place.  The fields above have melons and squash in them.  We had a small window in June to cultivate and we took it, using the Williams Tool Bar with squash knives to hit each bed as best as we could.  It was a hot, sunny day, which is usually a good time to cultivate as the weeds will die more quickly.  Sounds good, right?

Well, a thunderstorm popped up and dropped a whole lotta rain just after cultivation.  Yes, we knew there was a chance it would rain.  But, it rained buckets close enough to the point of cultivation that it just packed a bit too many of the weeds back on in so they could live.  This wasn't an issue for the between row weeds because the tines on the cultivator was able to work them all the way out of the soil.  But, the weeds in row?  Ya.  That's where hand-weeding comes in, I guess.

Even so, we continue to plug along and make progress.  Three of the six fields in the East are largely "under control" and the North and Southwest fields also fit the "under control" description.  Essentially, we'll get there.  Or we won't.  And, if we don't, we just mow it before weeds go to seed and tell ourselves there is always next year.  But, instead of letting that bother us, we go and look at some of these:

Yeah.  We feel better now.  And, we're looking forward to harvesting more from the fields we weed.