Wiregrass Battle.....Day One

First we had to pull up all the rocks and bricks, and then the carpet paths the rocks were anchoring.

Almost all the carpet had to be tossed -the wiregrass had literally woven itself into the carpet fibers. A few pieces were salvaged.

Then the drip hose was pulled up - found out a 10 foot section had hardened to the point of being brittle. Also removed and stacked the plastic racks that the gourds grow on (have I mentioned I found new gourd seeds a couple days ago: snake gourds, swan gourds, apple gourds and....nest egg gourds).

Lastly, before roto-tilling, we dug and temporarily potted the blueberry bushes. Discovered the wiregrass had grown into the roots and bound them. No wonder my poor babies didn't grow much last year.

Then we raked up all the loose mulch and straw, piling it up to be removed with the bad carpet.

And then - roto-tilling. This is the final result:

There's one strip left of wiregrass on the lefthand side - we'll get it tomorrow.

All of this tilled dirt has to be gone over with a rake, clump by clump, so we can remove the wiregrass runners.

Have I mentioned that wirefrass is The Devil?

Plan B is a flamethrower.