Ah! August! Are you overtaken by weeds yet? Are you afraid to venture forth into your gardens?
Some things certainly can overtake your lives, gardening-wise. Besides just plain old weeds, there are some things we grow that, well, get a bit overwrought. I have no problem at all with getting out the trimmers and taking a whack at things. The hedge clippers come in handy at this time of year to deadhead perennials down to nothing. Forcing them to stop making seeds actually allows them to bloom again, especially enthusiastic bloomers like coreopsis and monarda. And there’s nothing like a machete to really get your ya-yas out.
As you know, I have no problem hacking up my tomatoes, either. But squash, vining squash plants like pumpkins and other winter squash: yep, I hack those up too if they’re in my way. Some of my cukes are branching ones: the Boothby’s Blonde have a mildly annoying habit of sending up thousands of side branches. So I hack away. Lest it sound like I have nothing better to do than butcher my plants, I am rather busy at this time of year. Somehow though if things are really bugging me with their verdant enthusiasm I do get out the shears and get snipping. Makes me feel like I have some semblance of control. Ah. The little juicy rationalizations that get us through the day.
Because I have no control at all over the weeds in the paths of the new greenhouse beds right now. There are just not enough hours in the day. And I am…mostly okay with that. Mostly because I have that machete.
Glad you came to visit!
Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
fast grow the weeds 
I can SO relate. I opened up a huge new bed this year and then got greedy and severely overstocked it. I was really wishing we had a machete about a month ago. The squash are now starting to die back, which is a help. But yeah, I had to do some hacking too. The tomatoes are still totally out of control, as are the potatoes. And let’s not even discuss the weeds.
Next year, more mulch.
Glad my paths aren’t the only ones that look like that. We got rain last night so I’m going to try to get some of that under control today.
My tomatoes are completely out of control – a combination of me being lazy about pruning them, the 14 determinates that have gone wild and that I planted them WAY too close together after someone gave me 6 more and I decided to squeeze them in. And my pumpkin? I keep beating it back and since it doesn’t have a single pumpkin yet I’m wondering why I’m even humoring it.
I’m considering using the week wacker to get things under control…
You give me courage. When I realized I couldn’t navigate to the back of the vegetable garden, I gave the squashes severe haircuts and vow to do the same to the tomatoes next year.
Oh yeah, between the heat, humidity, and weeds, I dislike August very much! Your weeds looks nothing compared to mine!
HA! Everything is okay with a machete! (I certainly won’t argue with you on that!)
I have some serious weed problems, I was pregnant with a high risk issue for most of this year and so my garden has been taken over by bull thistles and blackberry brambles, both higher than my head! I thought of getting a machete to hack everything down, would I as a normal strength, size medium woman be able to wield it effectively, do you think? I can’t seem to find this information through any googling 😉
Kate, I know: gardens can make you seriously rethink things, can’t they? Yes to mulch though! I swear I halve the time I have to do anything only because I am a fanatical mulcher. (Okay so if I halve my time and I still have no time…maybe my gardens are too big? Nah!)
Laura I kid you not if I go at things with whatever sharp tool I have handy I do feel a lot better. The plants might not, though 😉 But yes, I do the same thing with my tomatoes. I seem to have A, B and C tomatoes: As being the best which get the most care, Bs being the annoying small-fruited ones, and Cs being the volunteers I allow to live and then wonder why I do when the vines take over everything. Sigh. And let’s not even talk about volunteer squash. You might have to wait. They send up the boy flowers first and as you know they’re worthless for fruit…
Ann! Courage! Yep. I know we are TRYING to encourage growth but honestly if you can’t move through the garden then something’s gonna have to give.
Bobbi, I tell you I am a very even-keel person and I think it’s because I take it out on my greenery.
Daisy, okay, truth be told: I only get the machete out to chop up old broccoli stems and the like for the compost. But the image sticks, me, swinging a 30″ long blade, beating back a path to the beans…
WMM: Well, take it easy! Part of great parenting is knowing when to give in. This is of course not easy to take, but then again I was on bedrest for 2 months so I know a little of what I am talking about 😉 This isn’t your gardening year. And really it’s probably going to be easier on you and the greenery if you took leather gloves and a sharp pruner to the thistles and the blackberries. Next spring though!