I thought that I should introduce you to my garden this spring, especially since it is definitely not "weed-free" and since I've spent time in it every day since the pandemic began.
First, I want to mention health. I try to have skin showing when I'm in the garden, in order to absorb as much Vit. D as possible. And I make an effort to get my body in direct contact with the earth, so I can "ground." Rubber boot-soles inhibit grounding, so at least part of the time I'm kneeling or sitting. Therefore, I'm also trying not to get bitten by fire ants, my nemesis.
We have 2 large gardens, the North Garden & the South Garden. We almost plowed the South Garden under this year because all of it is too much. But we're home more right now and we kept it for another year. I'm mostly working in the North Garden & Raven, my partner, is mostly in the South. Each garden is about 60 feet long and 30 feet wide.
Here is a photo from the NE corner of the North Garden, taken this afternoon:
I like to have plants in all stages of their life cycles -- for one thing, pollinators love flowering vegetable plants.
This year I'm weeding 30 minutes a day, and, in fact, setting a timer to do it. Sometimes I go longer. In the photos below, you'll see the patch of nutgrass still ahead of me, and also a close-up of it. In one other picture I show you some sweet potato slips coming up in a path where I'm weeding nutgrass. This is a heirloom variety I got from the Sweet Potato Queen, Yanna Fishman, and I grow it every year. I have slips coming along in the kitchen window, and I'll also dig this one up and put it in water as well. My neighbor Serena wants some slips, so there will be plenty.
Gardening is not work to me, the same as writing is not work. (Well, maybe a little.)
When I was sitting at the edge of the aisle full of nutgrass, I felt 25 again, working in my garden at Sycamore, listening to "The Prairie Home Companion" on a radio plugged into an extension cord. I felt more free than I've felt in years, and younger, and happier. I felt myself coming back.