A first year garden can be really "weedy", but keep in mind that most all of what w do refer to as "weeds", unwanted plant growth, are also wild flowers that can harbor beneficial insects, pollinators and predators. You could till the area and till in those "weeds" adding them to the organic matter in the soil and seed a cover crop, some of which have allelopathic (growth suppressing)properties, or cover the area with a good mulch (tree leaves are good here). Have a good reliable soil test done as well, now, so any amendments necessary can be added now and be ready for use next growing season. Contact your counties office of the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service about that soil test. In addition you may want to use these simple soil tests to help guide you in making the soil into a good healthy soil. 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drainsâ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. Here is a link that might be useful: UMD CES

Hubby and I spent all day yesterday doing fall clean up, and had a beautiful day to do it--he was finishing up a couple of terraced retaining wall/flower beds we are putting in just off the patio (space for even MORE hostas--yippee!) and I was burning off the big pile of brush we seem to accumulate every year from our aging trees. Our city is one that still has a bi-annual burn season, and though I know it is hard for folks with allergies and not very good for the environment, we are thankful to have it! It would cost us a fortune every year, as well as being WAY more work, to have to haul all that brush off. I also hauled umpteen wheelbarrow-loads of mulch to various places, trying to get rid of the huge pile we have on our driveway before winter sets in. We have a neighbor who has a tree trimming service, and he is happy to unload his chipper for us to save himself a trip to the landfill. Only thing is, his "mulch" isn't really mulch at all--it's more like big sticks, leaves and such. NOT pretty, but it does the job I need it to do for now. Did I mention it's free?? My flower beds are still not ready for clean-up, but I expect they will be frosted within the next week or so. Getting a good rain now, which is helping down some more leaves--the ground is covered with yellow and orange! We will be mulch-mowing them and raking to a couple of different piles to settle down for winter, and plan to use them next year. I already can't wait for spring to arrive!! Karen

The slug battle reason was given b4 in a thread and I have been thinkin on it...I have 10 different hosta beds. There are only a couple I have real slug issues with. All the beds are treated the same. I debated cutting them all back this year going around with a watering can and dousing each crown with ammonia water..then repeat in early spring see if it makes any difference...but then the leaves started dropping and that clinched it. "Fall clean up" means removing TRUCK LOADS of leaves from the grass, no way in HECK I am going to keep the hosta beds oak leaf free too. In the spring I will don my back pack blower, clean all the beds down to the dirt ( I am blessed to be yards deep in un-manicured WOODS behind all my hosta beds) and THEN do the ammonia/watering can thing. About two weeks ago I sprinkled Get-A Bug in every bed..that will have to be good enough for now!!!

Yes, the ecological situation is now extremely DIRE! Currently due largely to wild habitat destruction - Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970!!! And yet even in the middle of our planet's 6th MASS EXTINCTION...our POTUS has just absurdly and wrongly recommended the complete opposite here! President Donald Trump had a word of advice about stopping future blazes: “Raking.” “You’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important,” Trump noted Saturday surrounded by the devastation of the burned town of Paradise in northern California. “I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We have a much different —we’re a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem. And when they do, it’s a very small problem,” Trump said. (Niinistö said that he doesn’t recall raking ever coming up during his brief interaction with Trump earlier this month.)