Weeding After the Rain

So, after a post about embracing the weeds (Here if you missed it) I am of course following it up with one about getting out there and having a good weeding session. These tiny cabbage plants are not doing well thanks to a combination of flea beetle, brassica bug and competition from weeds.

One of the things I discovered in our very first summer here is that weeding is not an all year round activity. In my UK garden the ground rarely baked solid so it was pretty easy to get out even stubborn and deep-rooted perennial weeds like dandelions with a two-pronged weeder. Not so here - a few weeks of temperatures in the high twenties or above combined with my heavy clay, turns the soil into concrete! 

I've already talked about mulching to keep the moisture in and the weeds out, but some more persistent ones still get through and if you don't want them to swamp your 'proper' plants the only solution is to get down on your hands and knees and remove them. It does mean I can get up close with this beautiful Japanese herb, shiso perilla.

I must say that I find hand weeding incredibly therapeutic, a perfect combination of having to think a little, but leaving enough brain space to daydream too! And I love to see the wildlife living amongst the weeds, like these caterpillars of the heath fritillary butterfly. This species, although incredibly rare back in the UK is fairly widespread in France, but to keep it that way these weeds (a type of speedwell, I think) will stay at least until the caterpillars have pupated.

The other plus side about weeding is the generation of green material for the compost heap, a subject for another day. I pretty much compost everything, including standard no-nos like the roots of dandelion or creeping cinquefoil. My excuse is that as I put almost all my compost through a sieve before use I can pull out anything that has not broken down and put it through the system again. In fact I think the only weed of which I have loads and don't directly compost is the roots of bindweed. Normally I separate the white roots from the green stems, the stems and leaves go straight into the compost bin while the roots are laid out on the ground to completely dry out. They either then go into the compost or get chopped up with the mowings and get used as mulch. But be careful: unless utterly desiccated they may reroot.

Much tidier and with some new lettuce plants filling in the gaps. But after twenty-fours hours the ground is once more too hard to weed 
effectively, but hopefully a top up of straw mulch will keep the soil clean until the next storm!