With Baby Hibbs on the way, we decided to begin garden cleanup a little earlier this year! I think I am beginning to enter the nesting phase because the urge to complete our to-do list is real haha.
Tyler and I fully expected to be working on garden clean up for a few weekends but our friends Zach and Cherokee came over to help and wow what a difference it made to have a few extra hands.
P.S. don't mind the weedy rows... I am going to do some research this winter to see how we can control the grasses better. We have weed fabric throughout the whole garden so I am not sure how the weeds took over so much in the last few weeks.
This is the first year we invested in good quality materials. In the past we have tossed the plastic netting and weed fabric after the growing season. But as we continue to grow the flower hobby; it is essential to save as much as we can.
Tip #1: Purchase nylon rope netting and wrap it up around a 2x4 piece of wood to reuse it the following year.
Tip #2: Remove stakes, hoops, t-posts, and main hoses/drip lines before mowing down the garden vegetation.
This was quite the job. The weeds made it a bit more challenging but this way we are able to reuse all of these materials in the future and we definitely didn't want to mow over anything!
Baby Hibbs and I were in charge of driving the tractor, picking up the materials once they were pulled from the garden and collecting garden staples. Doesn't sound like much but phew it was a lot of bending over. We helped as much as we could haha.
Tip 3: use a tractor, four-wheeler, or a truck to help make the days work a lot easier.
We used my grandpa's little tractor for pulling up the weed fabric. The loader tractor was used for hauling weed trash away and the four-wheeler made it a lot more efficient to run and grab a tool, put things away or just to provide the pup with a comfy seat haha.
I made sure to harvest what was left of our flowers before we began clean up! It was fun to do one last arrangement for the season!
We still need to organize the machine shed, clean up cut flower supplies, spread cover crop seed and store dahlias; but it is huge a relief to have the garden almost ready for the winter. Hopefully we can work on the rest of our list next weekend. In the past our garden supplies have been spread all over the farm but this year, our goal is to have it all in one place!
Tip 4: Put the effort in now and have a smoother start to next year's growing season.
We would love to hear what has worked for you! Share your tips with us in the comments below.
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