Weeding the pumpkins

 One thing aobut this land is that it's really, really fertile.  If I let it go I get a lush green crop of...something.  But something is not what I'm after, so out comes the rototiller and I make pass after pass between the pumpkin plants.  I have a pretty narrow window to do this in -- once they start to vine out they'll be all over the rows and between them, so nows the time.

Weeds

 This is a pumpkin plant that is half weeded.  I've tilled the weeds between the rows, and then taken a hoe and cleared the area immediately around the plant, and then a couple of quick grabs and...

Happy pumpkin plant

 Voila!  The pumpkin plant emerges.   There's got to be a better way, probably some implement that does this, but this year it's old school.  A couple of hours a week seems to be keeping up with it.

It is as big as it looks

 I'm knocking the weeds down between the rows both to put the organic material into the soil -- composting them in place -- and to prevent them from getting to seed stage.  I'll keep running the tiller over those stripes every few weeks to take out more of the seed bank, and hopefully by removing millions of seeds after they sprout make it easier to deal with next year.

I do notice a real difference between the areas that were treated with roundup last year and those that weren't.  Much more green and lush and growing in the non-herbicided areas.

piglets doing what they do best

Bunch of piglets vacuuming up the spilled feed.