I don’t normally get excited over power tools. I know some gardeners who love their rototillers, for example, or who wax poetic about their John Deere riding mowers. We do have a lovely riding mower to cut the lawn – after all, with over 2 acres of grass, you need something pretty hefty to mow the lawn.
But back in the vegetable garden, I’ve got narrow pathways among the raised beds, and it’s all fenced in. Last year it was a mess. I mean a total, awful mess. Tall grass, weeds, and brambles retaking the pathways. I felt like I spent half my summer out there with a string trimmer just trying to hack back the weeds. We have an electric string trimmer too and the battery lasts a whopping 10 minutes. It’s supposed to last 30. So much for going green. I went more blue, as in my language cussin that thing!
Originally we were going to put down gravel between the pathways, but I warned John last year that I thought gravel would reflect too much heat back to the vegetable beds. At first he didn’t agree, but earlier this spring, he said the same thing to me – “Let’s leave the pathways as grass.” So I knew we would keep the grass.
We went to Lowe’s and found what I wanted. A nice, old-fashioned push mower, the kind I used to use as a kid in Floral Park cutting Mrs. Anderson’s grass for $2 a week. All you do is push it and voila – cut grass. It’s perfect for the pathways and it mulches the grass clippings back into the paths, or I can rake them up, as I did yesterday, and compost them.
We spent about two hours yesterday fixing up the vegetable garden. The radishes are up and I think the lettuce seeds, but no sign of the peas. The onions look like they’re taking well, and the garlic is thriving.
Mrs. Moleworthy, as we have now dubbed the garden mole, appears to be concentrating her tunnels now on the herb beds. From people’s comments to me I think she won’t harm anything so I am leaving her alone. My next project is to paint a little sign for Mrs. Moleworthy’s garden. I think she has moved in for good. As an organic gardener, I look forward to any way that nature has for keeping the insects down to a minimum. I’ve chosen to view Mrs. Moleworthy’s presence as a gift, for moles are supposed to eat insect larvae, grubs and all the nasties that attack my plants. As long as she tunnels away from the root crops and doesn’t disturb anything, I will be her landlord, and hopefully she will be a good tenant.
I found a push mower at a yard sale last year, they are wonderful for doing those small areas. I can see where yours would do a great job around the veggie garden.
Spray the blades of your push mower with cooking spray. Yes, cooking spray. It will make the cleaning of the blades easier. Keeping the blades clean will prolong the life of your push mower. We learned that when we had our 1/4 acre in Virgina. Now we have 1/2+ acre in Georgia, and we still have the same mower!
Spraying the blades with cooking spray is not recommended – the new mowers are already coated with something, and cooking spray’s scent will attract vermin especially out here in the country!
Yes, it did a GREAT job. My vegetable garden never looked so neat. And it was actually fun to use because it was easy to push. Plus I like the fact that I do not need gasoline for it. I get a workout and a neat veggie garden!