The book , by Ruth Stout states that by putting 8 inches of hay, or leaves, or mulch on your garden. You dont have to do anything to it. My problem is weeds. And I was almost going to cover my garden with black covering this year and sterilize and let it kill all the weeds . Ive got those marigold vines that overun everything. Do you think cover would keep the weeds down and allow me to grow this year . Or should I cover it this year to kill the weeds. Chemicals have already been done. They just come back.
If you put 8 inches of hay over your garden you may not have to do much with it this year. But, next year you will have at least two year's work trying to get rid of everything that sprouts from the seeds in the hay.
Do a Google search on "soil solarization." You should find some detailed information.
Last fall I put several inches of grass and leaves on a small section of my garden. I don't see any weeds popping up yet but it is early. I am planning to simply remove a enough topping to dig a hole for the plants. Will make a progress report later.
I am also going to use Preen on the other places where I am going to set out plants.
There is no magic bullet. It takes work preparing the garden, i.e. getting rid of the weeds and keeping after them. And some weeds are harder to get rid of than others. Around here we have horse nettle. It propagates by seed and runners. I just try to keep after the plants with Round Up. I can get the spray on just the plant I want. The rest of the stuff I just pull up.
Once you get an area clean it is easier to keep that way. I have never succeeded in completely ridding the place of weeds.
How long have you been using mulch to suppress weeds? The first year I did it, I was pulling bindweed sprouts out every single day. (Bindweed, in case you don't know, is an aggressive vining flower that develops an enormous taproot and covers EVERYTHING if left uncontrolled.) I also had lots of grass in my beds, strongly coming up through the cardboard and mulch.
Two years later, the bindweed is all but gone--I had to pull a sprout maybe once a week last summer--and the grass is coming under control as well. I think it just takes time. The first couple of years will be "more work" gardens where weeds are concerned, but after a couple of years of mulch and cover crops, the weeds don't need to be there, so they don't grow. You must remember that weeds are nature's way of protecting the earth--any time earth is exposed, such as with a freshly-tilled garden bed--whatever seeds lie in the soil will pop up to cover the bare area. When you cover that area with mulch and cover crops, you have done the work of protecting it, and will get fewer weeds.
That is not a fact. It depends on the hay and how it's used. Even if you use seedy hay such as meadow hay, if it's prepared by ageing it and turning it in the bale, weeds wont' be a problem
IF they are your basic morning glory annuals then keep up with your weeding. The seeds will remain in the soil and continue to germinate for a few years but gaining the upper hand with them isn't a big deal.
We have garden variety morning glories growing around the vegetable beds. The morning glories come up in the beds all the time and get weeded out as a matter of course. We'd be weeding anyway so it works out fine.
If they are annual bindweed, the same holds true. Just keep weeding until the yearly waves of seed have spent themselves.
Field bindweed is a perennial and more difficult because it will regrow from the severed root but the solution is exactly the same with the certain knowledge that each time you sever the vine, you weaken the root.
And as for masses of vines, careful snipping (avoiding your tomato vines) will give you the room you need to walk in and weed.
once you are in controll of the weeds mulching will help to control there after wesue around 6" to 8"s of mulch which also keeps in moisture. so if teh weeds are well entrenched you may need to deal with them first eg.,. cut them right back or pull them out then cover with a good cover of newspaper and mulch for the first season there after the mulch should go a long way to helping weed control.
works well enough for us so much so we rarely get sort after volunteers grow snipped
we ahve found that not to be so, whatever grain is still in the straw si not a self perpetuating weed anyway and the bit that does germinate in say 8"s of straw is no hassle to be pulled and tucked under for extra nutrient as you walk you garden daily or other wise.
and even using pasture grass hay like we often do you get very little grass seed germinating with that depth of cover. all of which is so easy to pull as it is only rooted on the mulch or the newly formed humus.
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On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:59:11 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@forteinc.com wrote: snipped
That's bindweed, the exact same thing I had. Again, it will take a few years to get rid of it fully. Expect to pull them out every day this summer. It will help to lay down some cardboard (or at least several layers of newspaper) before putting the mulch down. That will stop some of it, but not all. Just keep pulling it this summer and maybe next, and keep those cover crops growing at all times, and you'll be fine in a few years. You can trust me on this. Seriously, I had bindweed EVERYWHERE. Here is a picture of a single day's sprouts:
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was in 2008. Last year we had almost NO bindweed. I'd pull up one or two sprouts a week. Don't worry, it takes time, but with mulch and cover crops your garden will eventually be fairly clear of weeds.
I was looking at the Agway site and they have something called Mainely Mulch which is sterilized straw and hay. It's dried at very high temperatures which they claim kills most of the weed seeds. It looks interesting, has anyone tried it?
Then there is alfalfa (lucerne). Sells here for about $15/bale. It is a combination fertilizer and mulch. Just ask me or Charlie. We both fried some plants with alfalfa pellets last year, but I've never had a problem with plant burn or weeds from the bales.
It was especially hard on my peppers. Overdosed for sure and a major setback. I was using alfalfa meal and pellets. I've since switched to alfalfa chops, which is very rough cut, chopped as it says, and mixed with molasses, which I am *assuming*, without much evidence other than my gut and accumulated ideas and information over the years, is beneficial to soil microbes and compost piles and soil amending, as I add molasses to my compost tea.
Charlie, smelling an oven full of potting mix (sterilizing) and watching a friggin' snowstorm........grrrr
First Bill and the East Coast get run over (several times), and now you're getting snow. I didn't think that bad boy was due until tomorrow. Looks like after that, you'll be coming back to the Land of the Thawed with sunshine and warmer weather.
Last year, I didn't start my germinations until early April. My plants were still small when I set them out in mid May. This year with a 4' T5 cranking out 19,000 lumens my tomatoes, which I started at the beginning of Feb. are a foot tall (30 cm) and I'm having to pick flowers off the damn things. I have 6500 bulbs in them which is supposed to be good for foliage. The 3500 are said to be good for flowering. At this rate, my tomatoes will be 5' tall by the time I plant them and the melons trailing out the door. So, I'm cutting the umbilical cord and I'm going to let them go outside and play. That should slow them down.
Oh yeah, the lights that I payed $150 for 2 months ago, are now $100 grrr.
Anyway, I'm still working on my timing to start germination. As for now, I have most of my garden in my study. Waiting for the ground and air to warm up.
I might even be able to put the tomatoes outside now, but I'm too prudent to risk it. I tossed out the seedlings that I couldn't use (no space) but then felt bad about it the next day, and planted 4 of the cells (containing a half a dozen tomatoes each) in a not ideal part of my yard. They seen to be hanging on, which makes me wonder what else might grow there.
Got to wrap up my potting and get on to the happy hour. We are cleaning out the refrigerator tonight.
It's started already. THings have lost that winter feeling, even though it is still cold and somewhat snowcovered.
Ooooh, I want some of those!
Hell, I still have most of my garden in the packets, though the little post have been soiled and await seeds.
Germination time is a SWAG (scientific wildass guess, as opposed to a WAG, wildass guess) for me. Lots of variables, including my procrastination. Some years the poor dears are two feet tall and waiting for warmth and other years they are a couple inches tall and shoulda/couoda been in the ground earlier. Whaddayado, eh?
I still think Bill had the best solution.....disk up an acre or so and mix everthing in a bucket and broadcast it about and wander about the ground harvesting whatever is available.
Human intervention in germination/propagation may not be optimal. Volunteer tomatoes do as well or better than ones I start. ;-)
That's one way to enjoy a smörgåsbord, I suppose. You gonna bother with service, or just lounge in front of the door with spoons and a bottle of vino.
Skål!
Charlie, thinking of a Robert Fulghumesque midnite feast, picturing Billy in his boxers with a spoon in hand, lounging against the open 'fridge door. En fin fest!
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