CULT:Gravid Greens, preparing beds, and other myths

Well I was weeding again today.  The only trouble is that when I do that I
am always trying to match what I see in my iris bed to what I've read in the
posts onlist.

I found a leaf that was the victim of careless weeding last week lying in
among the iris.  What I hadn't notices before was that this particular leaf
had a very dark oval at the bottom where it had been torn from the fan.
I began peeling away the layers and lo and behold, there really was a fetal
bloom in the middle of the leaf.  You see, when y'all had said the blooms
start out at rhizome, I didn't really believe you.  Not that y'all would
lie, I just thought maybe there was a, I dunno, a kernel of tissue, not so
much an actual mini bud.

Anyway, Green and Gifted and Green Prophecy both have pregnant fans.  Here's
another case of I didn't really believe you.  I've seen the buds peeking out
the top of the fans and thought that must be what you meant.  But, someone
had said you could actually feel the buds inside the leaves so I've been
feeling em up.  Again, I found out what y'all meant.

Such a nifty tool this online forum is.

So I've ordered a pile of iris for delivery end July, if I remember
correctly.  What I do remember is that last year I was out there in
July/August, trying to dig my bed after my iris had arrived.

I have red clay soil, so what I had when I was digging my beds was red brick
soil.

So the question is, if I get really ambitious and want to dig my bed for
this year's aquisitions now, while the ground is still readily workable,
what can I do to keep the weeds down in the interim?

Christian
ky

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