Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Landscaping with Weed Whacker...and pruning holly.

Weed Whacked area...formerly grass paths. Well, and buttercups.
Landscaping with Weed Wacker by Erin. I'm thinking of writing a book. Chapter One: Hedge pruning with Weed Wacker. I really don't prune hedges with it. Yet. If I could figure out a way to hold it up, I'm sure I could do it. When Allan, the gardener's assistant, taught me to use the WW last summer, I bet he had no idea what a Weed Wacking aficionado I would really become. And how we would burn through machines. I killed the last WW and we bought a new one last weekend. We got the same one again, which means I have four batteries!!
Victim of the technique. Blueberries accidentally topped.
 I have been trying to clear paths around the gardens. It has been arduous. I finally figured it out. You need the grass super short. I hold the WW at an angle, and let it cut down through the grass until you hit dirt. And for heavens sake...wear goggles. I take it down to ground. There will still be stubs of grass and buttercups. But then when you dose them with my all natural week killer, there is very little to fry. You need to do it on a hot sunny day. All the green will be brown in a couple hours. When you are trying to use the weed killer on long grass, you never seem to get it all and it just keeps growing. This way, by the end of the day you can have everything dead. I just keep Weed Wacking the new little grass shoots and dose them again. It has been super fast and effective.
Pumpkins and squash planted.
Yet again I forgot the before picture. It took us well over an hour and we have 4 huge bins of Variegated Holly branches. I have taken a very large holly and turned it from a huge tree/shrub about ten feet across and twelve feet high into a sculptural beauty. (That is my story and I'm sticking with it.) No really, I've done this before and this was the end result:
Holly Bonsai.

11 comments:

Jane and Chris said...

Way to go, Erin! I'm from the 'no prisoners' school of pruning so you get two thumbs up from me!!
Jane x

Erin said...

Really Jane? I would love to see some of your pruning. I just can't stop until...well...I'm done. I started out just wanting to bring the bottom up a foot so I could kill the buttercups underneath that kept creeping out into the garden. Well, you can see the result. Hee hee.

Mark Willis said...

Hi Erin. My first visit to your blog for some days - but you know why...
What is the black gadget in the bed which houses the Squashes?
And is that an Elephant I see in the background of that picture?

Erin said...

I cannot believe how observant you are. That black gadget is a solar light. Super bright. It h stopped working though, so I'll have Allan look at it, but they don't seem to last very long. I have another smaller one in the strawberry patch and it points at the Japanese maple. It sure isn't like a spotlight, but I can see them in the dark.
The elephant came from my store when we had much more Chinese stuff. I'll post a close up. It's really pretty.

Gardeningbren said...

I didn't notice that elephant!! Mark has good eyes ))).

Beds look great!!

Do you find the weed whacker gets outs all frustrations? ;-))))

Andrew @ Garden Ideas said...

Your raised bed vegetable gardens look good.
Is it your plan to become fully self sufficient?
Thanks for sharing and Good luck with your endeavours

Erin said...

The elephant is adorable. I love it.
I get into the WW zone Brenda. I watch those little buttercups flying this way, and that...and my insides just sort of...smile.

Erin said...

Thanks Andrew. My yard is only .15 acres, so I can't be self sufficient. It has been my dream since the 70's. Back to the land and all that. It would feel wonderful to be able to feed my family everyday from my garden.
But until then, I'll do what I can.

Alex said...

I love the gardening and always in search of new and beautiful plants. Your garden is so beautiful. You need to do it on a hot sunny day. All the green will be brown in a couple hours. All the plants are very dear to me. We get food and fresh air from the plants.

Stephen said...

I'm a big fan of gardening, I only wish i had a bigger area on my property in which to grow different plants. Thanks for the article, i really enjoyed it

Brian said...

Thank you for this article, i love what you have done with your garden. nice couple of little tricks and tips there also. very good read, keep them coming.