What to do in the rain? Weed!

Yesterday was the first day in about a week on which it did not rain, and we actually saw sunshine! I have to tell you that it's frustrating at this time of year to be unable to do much outside for days at a time.

Luckily, there's one activity that is perfectly suited to a sopping wet garden: weeding (or de-weeding, depending on how you look at it)! That's what I did on each of those days when the rain let up.

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When my clay soil is really wet, weeds slide out so easily -- including most of the violets! I can even pull some dandelion taproots out without any digging, but not every one. When my soil has dried out even a bit -- say to the level that allows you to dig in it -- the difference is amazing. Those weed roots grab so much more tightly then! I rarely pull weeds when the soil isn't wet.

My strategy with weeding is to attack a small area at a time.

Even with larger beds I'll break it up into zones, and task myself with clearing a zone at a time.

This way I can stop when I get bored -- which is essential to keeping weeding from being a hated task -- and still feel like I've "finished" the job.

I normally would have gotten lots of these weeds out weeks ago, but the lingering cold has put me a little behind schedule in that area.

Makes me wonder: if we hadn't had a week of rainy days, when would these weeds have come out?

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