I had an over growth of crabgrass this year.
Next year, I will know to pull out the young growth of green grass when it starts to appear. Letting it sit, because I wasn’t up to weeding, caused a large problem for the tomatoes and me all summer long.
I talked to other home gardeners living in my area. They complained about the crabgrass and for once, I wasn’t jealous when they said, they used their gas powered tillers in a futile attempt to rip out the crabgrass.
Crabgrass has an evasive toot system. If you chop one root into a million pieces, like an unwanted creature in a horror movie, you will end up with a million new little creatures Or rather, a redundant amount of crabgrass.
This past summer, I made a half hearted attempt to pull one plant at a time. Crabgrass pulls back, as it sticks its heels in and sneers at you.
By fall the crabgrass had gone to seed. Millions of little black seeds, I panicked! I sat on the deck and wondered how I will get rid of this mess in a non chemical fashion?
Mother Nature came through to remove part of the crabgrass problem in the form of birds, Finches, Wrens, Sparrows, and Cardinals, all converged on the garden. They landed in the grass, on the dirt, the rocks and on the dog kennel. Grabbing at the plants, and eating the little seeds.
My stress level lowered, naturally.
After I had cleaning out the old tomato plants, zucchini and pumpkins plants I made a half-hearted attempt at raking up the dried crabgrass.
I used tree leaves to cover the ground. Over the leaves I set a piece of wood fencing to hold everything down. The grass and weeds that are still growing will die over the winter, making it a lot easier to break up the root system in spring.
Well, that’s the plan..
Picture found at;
http://www.aragriculture.org/horticulture/ornamentals/weed_id/crabgrass.htm