It was a  morning of weeding for us.  Weeding is one of those jobs that provides immediate satisfaction.  You can see the result of your effort right away, and it feels good.

In the photo above, Lisel is taking a break from cleaning up the carrots.  In the foreground are Chioggia beets, followed by Golden Detroit beets, then two beds of carrots where Lisel is standing.  Behind her is Swiss Chard (with really huge leaves), then spinach behind that, and finally the trellised peas.

We try to do our weeding with hoes as  much as possible.  It’s a lot faster, and easier on the back because you can stand up.  Lisel is using a stirrup hoe in the  carrots, because they’ve been  cultivated several times already, and the weeds there are small.  Sometimes, though, pulling by hand is the most effective option, especially when the weeds have gotten big.

Our main weeds are Canada Thistle, bindweed, pigweed, and some lambsquarter.  I’ve noticed a sequence:  first come the thistles early in the spring; next the bindweed starts showing up, followed by lambsquarter and then pigweed.  They’re all relatively easy to cultivate when they and the crops are small.  Thistle is tough once it gets several inches tall.  And they’re all tough once the crops get big.  In the photo below, you can see how the beet tops have filled in to cover the whole bed (and pretty much all of the pathway between the beds!):

The thick cover does act as a living mulch to suppress a lot of the weeds.  Thistle and pigweed don’t do so well.  But the bindweed doesn’t seem to be much phased and starts to get tangled up with the crops.  That’s when hand-pulling is the best option I’ve found.  It’s a lot of work, but definitely satisfying when finally finished!