More Winter Weeds

I was dismayed this week by how much bittercress (photo below) is returning to the Native Plant Garden.  It's hard to believe that so much seed is in the ground from prior years, nor can I conceive that we let so many plants go to seed last year.  Well, it is what it is.  I've weeded out all the plants that are large enough to get hold of, unless some are hiding in the tall grass.  And I've added some mulch where they are just too thick to weed out.  Fortunately, I had a fine, warm day to get my fingers dirty.  More weeding will be needed in January but the weather may not be so accomodating.

Small weeds and grasses are still a problem in the Rain Garden, so I mulched that bed, where leaf mulch hadn't already collected, with chopped leaf mulch donated by a neighbor's lawn service..  When the perennials begin to sprout in March, all the leaf mulch will need to be cleared away.  Hopefully, the mulch will have smothered the unwanted weeds by then.

To fill out my afternoon, I finished dormant season clearing of the Powhattan Dining Hall garden.  There were just a few weeds in that bed.  The wood mulch covering the landscaping fabric that was used there is getting thin in spots, so I added a couple of bucketsfull.  With landscape fabric, there isn't much choice but to continue adding wood mulch as needed, since the fabric prohibits the use of a living ground cover.
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