Fun out of gardening
 

I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it is
now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope the
heat will kill many of the weed seeds.

Fun out of gardening
 

Leeper wrote:
I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it is
now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope the
heat will kill many of the weed seeds.




I grow in 4x8 or 4x16 raised beds. They're all surrounded by landscape
fabric stapled to the wood of the frame and the fabric is covered with
mulch at least 18" out from the frame. The plants themselves are
surrounded by mulch as well. It not only dissuades the weeds, it retains
moisture and dissuades soft belly pests like slugs.

Covering the garden right now in plastic would start killing any weed
seeds in the ground. Leave it on for a couple weeks and then plant...and
go mad with the mulch and landscape fabric. If you don't have raised
beds, you can apply the fabric and mulch right up to the row of each veggie.

..

Zone 5b in Canada's Far East

Fun out of gardening
 

Preen. Magic stuff. It's made from corn gluten and inhibits seeds from
sprouting.

That said, you need to transplant your veggies rather than direct sow.

marcella

In article ,
"Leeper" wrote:

I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it is
now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope the
heat will kill many of the weed seeds.

Fun out of gardening
 

"Leeper" wrote in message
news:8ZKdncTJhJPOJb_bnZ2dnUVZ_gSdnZ2d@scnresearch. com...
I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it
is now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope
the heat will kill many of the weed seeds.


Only prolific plant that I didn't purposely put in the garden is the dadburn
bermuda grass that surrounds it. Rest is easy to gleen out by hand weeding
every week or so. Bermuda grass is much more pesky.
--
Dave

Apathy and denial are close cousins

Fun out of gardening
 

"Leeper" wrote in message
news:8ZKdncTJhJPOJb_bnZ2dnUVZ_gSdnZ2d@scnresearch. com...
I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it
is now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

Handing picking, hoeing, clawing, and occasionally spraying weed killers.
There are also pre-emergent weed killers out there but you can't use them
until your crops are up or you plant seedlings.

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope
the heat will kill many of the weed seeds.

The heat doesn't go too deep so when you turn the earth you'll being up more
live seeds to germinate. If doing it manually isn't an option I'd go with
the chemicals. Anything beats the near tasteless stuff in the stores.

Fun out of gardening
 

"Leeper" wrote in message
I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it
is now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

Mulch - about 2 inches thick of thicker depending on the situation -
sometimes up to a ft.

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope
the heat will kill many of the weed seeds.

Not unless you want to cook your worms.

Fun out of gardening
 

On Apr 15, 7:42 pm, "Leeper" wrote:
I spent nearly a decade ammending my soil with natural amendments, and it is
now very fertile.

In recent years though, the battle with weeds has taken all the fun out of
it, and weeds just love the soil, and grow exceedingly fast and vigorous.

It has gotten so bad, that last year, I skipped planting it.

However, I miss the fresh produce off the vine, and the store bought stuff
tastes like wet cardboard.

How do you guys deal with the weeds?

I'm concidering covering everything with plastic this year, in the hope the
heat will kill many of the weed seeds.

There are two organic methods I know of. The first is mulch. Wood
chips will not stop overwintering dandelions, but if you put down a
piece of cardboard, weigh it down with wood chips, and then plant
vegetables through holes in the cardboard, you will have zero weeds.
You can also use leaves that have matted down. Grass clippings work
too. If you have weed seeds only, any mulch will do.

The second method is chickens. Give them one week in the garden before
planting, and weeds, weed seeds, bugs, slugs, earthworms, and mice
will all be gone. If you let them in after you plant, the vegetables
will be gone too.

Fun out of gardening
 

What ever method you use would work better if you use Roundup or its
generic to kill off everything first.

Fun out of gardening
 

James expounded:

What ever method you use would work better if you use Roundup or its
generic to kill off everything first.

Roundup does nothing about weed seeds, which is what the original
poster's problem is. Nevermind that this is a vegetable garden; I
wouldn't use Roundup in the first place, but on ground that will
produce food??!? I don't think so!
--
Ann
e-mail address is not checked

Fun out of gardening
 

On Apr 18, 8:33 pm, Ann wrote:
James expounded:

What ever method you use would work better if you use Roundup or its
generic to kill off everything first.

Roundup does nothing about weed seeds, which is what the original
poster's problem is. Nevermind that this is a vegetable garden; I
wouldn't use Roundup in the first place, but on ground that will
produce food??!? I don't think so!
--
Ann
e-mail address is not checked

Roundup kills weeds and therefore prevents most of your weed seeds.
Applying it several times after weed seed spouted will eventually
exhaust the weed seeds. Then you'll only have to deal with the ones
that get blown in or carried in by birds and animals. At that point
you can go organic.

Fun out of gardening
 

"Ann" wrote:

Roundup does nothing about weed seeds, which is what the original
poster's problem is. Nevermind that this is a vegetable garden; I
wouldn't use Roundup in the first place, but on ground that will
produce food??!? I don't think so!

So how would you handle the weed seeds? Is there a special technique
that works for you? I'm sure that more people other than myself would
like other proven methods instead of Roundup.

~~ Shelly ~~

Fun out of gardening
 

"~~ Shelly ~~" ~~ Shelly wrote in message
"Ann" wrote:

Roundup does nothing about weed seeds, which is what the original
poster's problem is. Nevermind that this is a vegetable garden; I
wouldn't use Roundup in the first place, but on ground that will
produce food??!? I don't think so!

So how would you handle the weed seeds? Is there a special technique that
works for you? I'm sure that more people other than myself would like
other proven methods instead of Roundup.

Just weed. Or use and old kichen knife and just disturb the ground around
growing seedlings when the weeds are at a very immature stage. A small
amount of effort every day or second day in soil that is cultivated as a
veggie garden is, makes weed control easy - just do a bit often.

Fun out of gardening
 

"~~ Shelly ~~" ~~ Shelly expounded:

So how would you handle the weed seeds? Is there a special technique
that works for you? I'm sure that more people other than myself would
like other proven methods instead of Roundup.

I weed. I cultivate the soil frequently which disturbs the seedlings,
severs roots and brings up new seeds to do the same thing to. Weeding
is an enjoyable task for me, calming, centering. It's part of being a
gardener.

As for what James said about using Roundup several times and then
going organic - I'm speachless. :o(
--
Ann
e-mail address is not checked

Fun out of gardening
 

"Ann" wrote in message
...
"~~ Shelly ~~" ~~ Shelly expounded:

So how would you handle the weed seeds? Is there a special technique
that works for you? I'm sure that more people other than myself would
like other proven methods instead of Roundup.

I weed. I cultivate the soil frequently which disturbs the seedlings,
severs roots and brings up new seeds to do the same thing to. Weeding
is an enjoyable task for me, calming, centering. It's part of being a
gardener.

As for what James said about using Roundup several times and then
going organic - I'm speachless. :o(
--
Ann
e-mail address is not checked

Probably a stock owner in some petrochemical outfit. Has no idea of what a
vegetable garden is, and ate its resultant "fruit".
--
Dave

Apathy and denial are close cousins

Fun out of gardening
 

"Ann" wrote in message
"~~ Shelly ~~" ~~ Shelly expounded:

So how would you handle the weed seeds? Is there a special technique
that works for you? I'm sure that more people other than myself would
like other proven methods instead of Roundup.

I weed. I cultivate the soil frequently which disturbs the seedlings,
severs roots and brings up new seeds to do the same thing to. Weeding
is an enjoyable task for me, calming, centering. It's part of being a
gardener.

I suspect that a respect and appreciation of weeding only comes with age - a
rite of passage for gardeners.

As for what James said about using Roundup several times and then
going organic - I'm speachless. :o(
:-))))))))))))