I came back from a flyfishing trip at the San Juan River last week to out of control weeds EVERYWHERE! Ever since the monsoons kicked in (thank god they did) so have the weeds. Amazing how the seeds lay dormant for years until the right time and water show up. Boom! An explosion of weeds. Now I know how they feel back east having to weed all the time with all the water they get.

I finished weeding the main vegetable garden yesterday-did the last 1000 sq feet in section 3 in one day!  Oh, my aching back. My main vegetable garden is divided into 3 sections, each section being about 1000 sq feet. Section 1 is the most fertile, being the original section built on 13 years of composted horse manure 6 years ago in 2008. Section 2- I built originally for my giant pumpkins 5 years ago but I moved them (being the gorillas that they are) after they took over the rest of the garden and Section 3-I built last year so I could get my tomatoes (50 plants this year survived) on a 3 year rotation cycle since I grow a fair amount for the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market. I rotate them to one of the three sections every year. Meanwhile my giant pumpkins moved over to the unused part of the horse corral about 3 years ago and they have 2000 sq feet all to themselves. Well almost-I have 14 more tomato plants over there. The only part left to weed is the paths around the gardens, the apple trees and about half of the pumpkin patch. Progress!

This whole weeding thing has been pretty overwhelming  this year so the only way I can get my head wrapped around it is to break down the big tasks into smaller tasks. I just keep chipping away at it-a little bit every day. Plus I have to tend to the veggie plants, keeping ahead of problems that come up from time to time and now harvest time is upon us and that is intense too. All part of the joy of gardening!  If I didn’t love those fresh vegetables and those fantastic tomatoes that we all wait for every year, I might not garden at all. But those tomatoes keep me coming back!