1. tilling brings weed seeds up to the top where they germinate and go to town.
tilling chops up worms. unless your soil is really rock hard clay, dont till. raise
the beds with wood or block and put in compost or good dirt and go from there. OR,
dig a hole, amend and plant. better for food plants is a bag of sheep manure, cut
drainage holes in the bottom, and X or two on top and stick the plant in. use drip
irrigation.
2. if you must remove weeds, cut them down to ground with a hoe and do it before
they go to seed. dont pull them as that brings weed seeds up to the top. the
rotting roots will provide food for worms and other good critters in the soil.
3. use newspapers to smother weeds. cheap, biodegradable and IT WORKS. put marsh!
hay over the newspapers. Start by getting the hay in fall to use as winter cover
over tender plants. in spring it goes down over the walks. in fall it is breaking
down and goes into the beds as mulch and is left there under plastic to rot down into
organic amendments. Soon you will be able to push your hand down into the soil in
the raised beds.
Ingrid


Dylan Keon wrote:
My plan for the beds is to use a heavy covering of leaves over all of
them next fall, which will keep the weeds down and will give us
something to till into the soil next spring. For the paths, I'm
currently thinking of weeding, covering with weed barrier cloth, and
then covering with a couple inches of wood chips.


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