Weeding and my fight with the Madagascar bean
Earlier this week when I was harvesting some kale I found a lot of weeds in the path where the kale plant was. I started pulling some out, but had to start cooking so left the job unfinished. Today was the day to finish that job and continue on further in the garden so I could get rid of some more weeds. They tend to grow a bit in the paths when the paths get low on sawdust, and some weeds get into the garden beds and affect the growth of the food plants. So armed with a wheel barrow and my hands, I pulled out a wheel barrow load of weeds.
In the process of weed pulling I came across a couple of Madagascar bean vines that were getting too invasive. One was covering 3 other garden beds and killing kale and other plants, the other was slowly smothering our prolific rosemary and hibiscus bushes. I pushed the first one back as far as possible to free up the garden beds again and expose the other plants to some sunshine. I had a big fight with the second one, as it did not want to let go of the rosemary bush! The rosemary bush was looking a bit poorly under the unslaught of the bean vine. I was finally able to pull the vine away from the rosemary bush without too much damage to either of them. There is still some bean vine amongst the hibiscus but I am not too concerned about that as we have a lot of that growing in the garden anyway. I just need to stay on top of those Madagascar bean so it does not get out of control again. They are a great eating bean, but do like to take over the garden!
©2016 Zaia; permeco.org, incorporating Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, simplicity, permaculture, self reliance, self sufficiency, sustainability, food, health and homesteading, weeding and Zaia’s fight with the Madagascar bean plant.