Jun 22, 2013

Nutsedge and the Strawberry Patch: Part One


This picture is of the second round of nutsedge that came along after plants were coming up and blooming, early June.

This little raised bed has grown some very good lettuces but I wanted a strawberry bed.  I have to tell you that our garden spot is now just full of, what we in the South call nut grass, but in reality it is not a grass at all.  Nutsedge is what it is called. To read more about this pain in my side click HERE for information from Clemson Cooperative Extension
I remember helping my Grandma pull the mess from some of her garden as a child.  I can still hear her voice saying, "Now, honey you have to get the entire root what we call a nut or it will come back."  She was so sweet. You do have to get the entire root system to at least get rid of it for a time.

This is how the bed looked after I pulled tons of nutsedge out of my raised bed at 
planting time. May 2013
If you look closely you can see the little strawberry plants poking their heads up through the straw.


Better picture for you to see them popping up


I purchased some plants from Stark Bros Nursery 
Surecrop
Earliglo
&
Tribute
Can't wait to see how well they do here.

The first row and a half is the EarliGlo Variety

EarliGlo Strawberry
 photo credit
The next row is
Surecrop
Surecrop Strawberry 
photo credit
 
The last row and a half is Tribute
Tribute Strawberry
 photo credit


 I can find no one that will tell you how to easily get rid of the nuisance. I only see ways in which to control it.
We do not have our vegetable garden this year and I miss it. My mama spent many an hour in the past weeding and pulling that mess out of the garden.  I thank her for her hot back breaking weeding. We decided that the nutsedge could have it this year and next year we will place our vegetable garden in another location.

You may recall that our land was plagued with sandspurs. If you don't know what that is then you are a very lucky person. Click HERE to read about that mess.
The garden spot still has some of that along with the nutsedge...whew!


sandspurs

 Chuck sprayed diligently and with time we have gotten rid of it in our lawn. We planted lots of grass seeds and that has helped to keep it out of our lawn.

I love to use pine straw as a mulch.  In the past I have used wood chip mulch but am prone to go back to pine straw.  We do have a great supplier of this and that is a good and convenient. Next post will have pictures of the blooms which I find to be so pretty.  Then the Strawberries themselves....Oh and guess what?  As I type this the bed is again full of nutsedge...I'm not gonna let it get the best of me ... no I won't...



This is in the flower bed located behind the strawberries. The Stella De Ora Daylilies are great they bloom so long and are so pretty. I have Iris, and other varieties of daylilies along with the lavender blue flower that the butterfiles, and bees just love. Oh I have some butterfly pictures this will be a post too.

Strawberries to be continued.....

Have a great weekend!


Dolly   





4 comments:

  1. When we lived in Austin, Tx our next door neighbor would put a drop of nail polish remover on the nut grass in her front lawn. It was tedious but it worked.

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  2. I will have to try that trick! I pull this all the time.

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  3. It looks great, Dolly. You are right- if you don't know what sand spurs are you are lucky! They are AWFUL! I love pine straw but we can't get it here- xo Diana

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  4. Looking good Dolly! I've never heard of nut grass! Is it the same as crab grass? We have plenty of that here in New England! Glad you got some strawberries in!

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