On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other
hazards)
Joyce Bupp
The phrase sounded a bit
odd.
“It’s too green,” The Farmer
had just said.
Too green? After the latest
monsoon week in which more
that five inches of rain—nearly
an inch a day—had fallen?
Too green? Imagine.
That observation momentari
ly sounded hilarious, especially
hard on the heels of last year’s
drought when we prayed almost
non-stop for green, green green.
But, in this case, the “too
green” description was assessed
over a couple of would-be soy
bean fields, located on north
sloped ground and blanketed
end-to-end with the thickest,
lushest growth of chickweed one
could ever want to find. Drive
across a field thick with such
chickweed and it turns into
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Mother Nature’s instant version
of an oil-slick. The virtually
unpenetrable layer of thick,
gooey, vegetative material is
also well- nigh- impossible to
run planting equipment through
with any hope of seeding suc
cess.
If the beans were ever to be
tucked into the waiting soil in a
proper manner to take root and
grow, the chickweed growth had
go. So, in this case, those fields
surely were “too green.” The
Farmer merely plotted the field
strategy flexibility, which crop
producers have had to exercise
in this thus-far soggy, swampy
spring.
Just minutes before, I’d
squished through the asparagus
bed, snapping off the latest
growth of fat, thick, tasty spears
we’ve been enjoying for the past
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several weeks. The asparagus
patch has thrived in the mois
ture, but in retrospect, promises
to be a candidate for the “too
green” category.
Because, poking up all
around the asparagus growth
were vibrant, healthy clumps of
“too green” weed cover. A lush
growth of unwanteds, waving
their still-small, lush leaves in
the light evening breeze, mock
ing me to come an get ’em.
Between digging up and moving
red raspberry roots which had
also laid claim over into the
neighboring asparagus patch, I
did yank at some of the clumps
of “too green.”
And everytime I pulled one
handful of the fledgling green
ery, two more popped up to in its
place.
Or at least it looked that way
in the next morning’s bright
sunshine.
With the abundance of won
derful moisture, nudged by
balmy temperatures and
strengthening sunshine, even
grass pulled up and left lay in
piles two weeks ago have under
gone resurrection and are
attempting to shoot fat, white
roots back into the ground.
Every nook and cranny, every
crack between sidewalk or patio
blocks, every corner where soil
meets pavement, wall or build-
ing block is sprouting clumps of
greenery.
In fact, the tufts of grass pok
ing out and around the walks
around the house have proven
handy for another lawn prob
lem, not of “too green,” but of “ijo
green.” Spot excavations for a
water line replacement resulted
in several bare sections of grass
in the yard. So the volunteer
turf growing in all sorts of
unwanted places is being
yanked up and plugged into a
patchwork effect in those bare
patches, to hopefully grow
together and fill in the blanks.
Our own little, self-contained,
mini-turf farm for growing lawn
sod. Sort of.
Now, if we could generate
Website Links
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 23, 1998-B3
some demand for chickweed, we
could do the same thing on a
larger (more- profitable?) scale,
with the “too green" growth that
needs to be eliminated ahead of
the soybeans.
Anyone out there interested
in planting a chickweed lawn? It
would grow lush and thick in the
spring, then dry up and not need
to be mowed, trimmed, aerated,
thatched or fed over the summer
when folks would rather do
beach, vacation and picnic-like
stuff. In fact, we’ll sell the chick
weed sod very reasonably. And
even label it authentically
“organic.”
Now there’s a niche market
possibility.
tors," says Jo Mercer, New
Castle County Extension educa
tor for ornamental horticulture
"This is a place where teachers
can discover others involved in
gardening projects, make con-
tact with them and learn from
their experiences."
The Web Site contains
detailed information about gar
dens at approximately 50 New
Castle County schools. Sites
include public, private, and
parochial elementary, middle
and high schools, as well jis
preschool gardens.