Two, four, six, eight ..

.. these are weeds I really hate (and some other garden stuff).

I posted on my revegetation blog about clearing out some Verbascum thapsus on a neighbour's place.  We are not immune to this pest here either so I spent some time wielding the brickies hammer spudding them above Whiskers Creek.  There were also quite a few thistles of one sort and another.

Apart from being an invasive weed I really hate anything with spines like that!

The final weed I hate is the Common Tare (aka Common Vetch) Vicia sativa.  Although the wiki disputes the point, I tend to think this is the tare of the Parable.  Whether that is the case or not it is certainly "a son of the evil one" in the way it invades our garden, strangling all in its path.  I didn't wait for angels to find time in their schedule, but ripped out a barrowful from our dahlia bed.

It was then time to pick the strawberries (the image is of the smaller, but at this stage more productive, patch).

Here is the outcome.

I also mulched the tomato bed, using some lucerne hay from our friend Tim.  We got material from the bottom of the stack so it was a tad dark, but its job is to retain moisture and suppress weeds rather than look pretty.

I think we have about 40 plants, so assuming reasonable Summer weather we are going tohave a good lot of love apples.