My roommate says weeding is not a requirement of a good garden. I on the other
hand can't find the plants due to the very healthy weeds surrounding everything
else. I am not much of a gardener (but I am the designated harvester) and I
thought I would check out my possible incorrect thoughts about weeds. 1)
Weeds take needed rain away from the vegetble plants. 2) Weeds will steal the
nutriants in the soil away from the vegetable plants. 3) Just mowing between
the rows does not benefit the vegetble plants as much as pulling the weeds. 4)
Mulching with newspaper or something like that would be beneficial. Anyway
any opinions regarding the Zen of weeding your vegetable garden would be
appreciated. TIA

I'm on your side....vegetables grow better when they are not competing with
weeds. However, from my early days of gardening, I know what it's like to
be confronted with a garden full of weeds, and not feel the motivation to
pull all of them. Far better to get a handle on them early in the season.

I now keep a permanent mulch on my veggie beds. I use mainly straw, with
some grass clippings, compost, and leaves as well. I pull it back to plant,
then push it back around the plants as they grow. I get only the occasional
weed, which is easy to pull. And the soil benefits from the continual
breakdown of organic matter. The only downside to a permanent mulch is a
larger slug population, but now that I've discovered Sluggo (non-toxic slug
bait) it's not much of a problem. And because I don't till or dig it over
each year, I'm not turning up new weed seeds.

Newspaper works well, especially in a new or particularly weedy garden. You
need to put something on top of it--straw, grass clippings--to keep it from
blowing away.

Cheers,
Sue

Zone 6, Southcentral PA

"Guppy21014" wrote in message
...
My roommate says weeding is not a requirement of a good garden. I on the
other
hand can't find the plants due to the very healthy weeds surrounding
everything
else. I am not much of a gardener (but I am the designated harvester) and
I
thought I would check out my possible incorrect thoughts about weeds. 1)
Weeds take needed rain away from the vegetble plants. 2) Weeds will
steal the
nutriants in the soil away from the vegetable plants. 3) Just mowing
between
the rows does not benefit the vegetble plants as much as pulling the
weeds. 4)
Mulching with newspaper or something like that would be beneficial.
Anyway
any opinions regarding the Zen of weeding your vegetable garden would be
appreciated. TIA

On 07 Aug 2003 11:36:13 GMT, (Guppy21014)
wrote:

My roommate says weeding is not a requirement of a good garden. I on the other
hand can't find the plants due to the very healthy weeds surrounding everything
else. I am not much of a gardener (but I am the designated harvester) and I
thought I would check out my possible incorrect thoughts about weeds. 1)
Weeds take needed rain away from the vegetble plants. 2) Weeds will steal the
nutriants in the soil away from the vegetable plants. 3) Just mowing between
the rows does not benefit the vegetble plants as much as pulling the weeds. 4)
Mulching with newspaper or something like that would be beneficial. Anyway
any opinions regarding the Zen of weeding your vegetable garden would be
appreciated.

I prefer mulching to weeding, so I mulch. Mulching also
conserves water and (if you mulch with organic materials)
improves the soil.

You only need to mulch heavily once, conceivably twice, but
you need to weed many times.

In raised beds using intensive planting, often the plants
themselves will grow so thickly that they'll shade out
weeds, without mulch being used.

I usually mulch with grass clippings, or straw, or autumn
leaves: whatever I can get, really. I'd use newspaper if I
had it (removing colored portions first).

Pat

I tried cedar mulch on top of newspaper for the first time this year. In
previous years I just used cedar mulch. The newspaper worked out great. No
weed problems where it was laid.


"Guppy21014" wrote in message
...
My roommate says weeding is not a requirement of a good garden. I on the
other
hand can't find the plants due to the very healthy weeds surrounding
everything
else. I am not much of a gardener (but I am the designated harvester) and
I
thought I would check out my possible incorrect thoughts about weeds. 1)
Weeds take needed rain away from the vegetble plants. 2) Weeds will
steal the
nutriants in the soil away from the vegetable plants. 3) Just mowing
between
the rows does not benefit the vegetble plants as much as pulling the
weeds. 4)
Mulching with newspaper or something like that would be beneficial.
Anyway
any opinions regarding the Zen of weeding your vegetable garden would be
appreciated. TIA

Pat Meadows wrote:

I'd use newspaper if I
had it (removing colored portions first).



Go to your local newspaper place [whereever they print the paper] and ask for
the "end roll." This is the last few hundred feet of the roll of blank paper.
They usually give it away, and the long continuous roll makes laying it down
easy.


Andrew

On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 10:20:17 -0500, Andrew McMichael
wrote:

Pat Meadows wrote:

I'd use newspaper if I
had it (removing colored portions first).



Go to your local newspaper place [whereever they print the paper] and ask for
the "end roll." This is the last few hundred feet of the roll of blank paper.
They usually give it away, and the long continuous roll makes laying it down
easy.



Our raised beds are tire-planters, though, and the long
single roll would be counter-indicated for us. Regular
newspapers would fit in the tires better.

But it's a very worthwhile idea for people with long raised
beds.

Pat

On 07 Aug 2003 11:36:13 GMT, (Guppy21014) wrote:

My roommate says weeding is not a requirement of a good garden. I on the other
hand can't find the plants due to the very healthy weeds surrounding everything
else. I am not much of a gardener (but I am the designated harvester) and I
thought I would check out my possible incorrect thoughts about weeds. 1)
Weeds take needed rain away from the vegetble plants. 2) Weeds will steal the
nutriants in the soil away from the vegetable plants. 3) Just mowing between
the rows does not benefit the vegetble plants as much as pulling the weeds. 4)
Mulching with newspaper or something like that would be beneficial. Anyway
any opinions regarding the Zen of weeding your vegetable garden would be
appreciated. TIA

You are correct. Plants compete for sun, water, and soil nutrients.
It's not *quite* a zero-sum game, but weeding isn't just a
consideration of neatness.

As for the Zen -- weeding requires little or no intellectual effort,
so time spent weeding can be quite like meditation. It's "out in the
fresh air" (as a bookish kid, I was always being urged to go outside).
It's useful and blameless. One of the few activities/pursuits in life
for which people can have absolutely no criticism. The hoe method
involves a certain amount of exercise, which is also lauded. The 'sit
on the ground and pull' method isn't much exercise, but can be
interspersed with walking around a bit and admiring how much you've
accomplished. The mulch method can be combined to reduce the amount
of time spent with the other 2 methods, as mulch is very good but not
100% effective.