Frank, I appreciate the follow-up. I'll be lifting the turf out
separate to remove as many weeds from the garden first... and I'm sure
glad you mentioned the Weed Block. We had totally forgotten about
that.
On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 05:53:11 GMT, "Frank Monroe"
wrote:
Hi neighbor. I'm in Waialua, HI. I recently tilled up my front lawn (about
600 sq. ft.). The only difference is, I plan to replant grass (zoysia)
instead of veggies like you. I rented a roto-tiller and just tilled it all
under. I should have sprayed it with Round-Up first, I suppose, but I did
sift the top 6 inches afterwards through a 1" x 3/4" wire mesh which removed
most of the grass/weed clumps and stones. Most of the grass and weeds were
dead already since we've had such a dry summer and I didn't water that weed
patch at all. After tilling, I used a 2 x 4 to level it using a back and
forth motion like you'd do to wet cement. Then, I fertilized and watered
for a week or so to sprout the weed seeds and the grass stems that were
left. I sprayed that with Round-Up. Two weeks later I gave it a second
spot treatment with Round-Up (there was hardly any thing green by then) and
now I'm ready to plant my grass seed sometime next week. The same routine
should work for planting veggies. You can use mulch and weed cloth to
inhibit weed growth between your rows. The mulch will reduce your watering
as well. Lowes sells 3' x 50' Dupont Weed Block for about $5 a roll. The
cheap stuff at Wal-mart didn't look very durable.
You can get bulk compost from Hawaiian Earth Products (in Campbell
Industrial Park or Kailua) for $40 cu. yd. if you have a pick-up truck. The
general purpose lawn/garden compost & soil mix (60/40) is $32/cu.yd.
http://www.menehunemagichawaii.com/
You can get free mulch from several locations (I got mine from the community
garden across from Wheeler AAB in Wahiawa).
http://www.opala.org/recycling_at_ho...ing.html#mulch
Composting Info. http://www.recyclehawaii.org/HG-41.pdf
Seeds. A bit more than Wal-mart seeds but a much wider verity and better
descriptions/instructions than the Burpee packaged seeds.
http://www.superseeds.com/
http://seedrack.com/
http://www.stokeseeds.com