GardenBanter.co.uk - The Great Roundup/Mulch Debate .... Part Deux

"SteveB" wrote:

When looking in my shed this afternoon, I discovered about two miles of
six feet wide heavy weed barrier cloth, purchased by my wife some time ago
for a dozen gladioli that she never planted.

My idea is to continue tilling tomorrow, picking out the weeds, making
rows, installing water lines, and using the cloth as much as possible to
kill weeds in the ground, and keep new ones out.

For an overcover, what's good and cheap (keyword - cheap) to put on top
the cloth? We're in zone 6, iirc, 3700' elevation, north of St. George,
Utah.

And can I expect that the weeds I miss that go under the cloth will die
out and not return with a vengeance? I figure when I pull the stuff up
after this season, I can cover the whole garden for winter except for any
winter planting I'm going to do.

For a vegetable garden put nothing atop the weed barrier cloth... why would
you want to, for what purpose, the cloth is plenty barrier enough... each
spring you'll be removing that cloth to retill, add amendments, and then
placing it back *before* planting. Planting before placing the cloth is a
giant mistake in every way imaginable, you'll very likely cover your seeds,
and overly trample your entire garden attempting to place the cloth around
plants. Planting prior to putting down the cloth is tantamount to laying
down wall to wall carpeting with all the furniture in the room. With a home
vegetable garden, especially for a newbie, it's a good idea to plan what you
will plant and where you will plant way in advance, even before buying any
seeds or plants, and make a diagram for reference. Areas for larger plants,
like tomatoes, peppers, squash, overlap the cloth and make holes for each
plant by cutting an X. For row plants, like lettuce, cabbage, beets,
carrots, leave like a 4-6 inch space between the strips of cloth and/or
cardboard walkways. If you think the only work is preparing the garden and
then never having to work at it again you have another think coming... I got
news for you, every year you'll be working harder and harder just to get
started again.... eventually you won't have the energy so will make your
garden smaller, or you'll lose the ambition and quit. Gardening is hard
work, very hard work... anyone tells you they only work in their vegetable
garden ten minutes a week is a liar or whose entire garden consists of a
small pot of parsley on their window sill. Just wait until it's time to
harvest, tell me how long it took you to pluck two pounds of green beans, if
you say ten minutes I'll call you a liar. And there is no money saved in
growing your own veggies, none, in fact it will cost you minimally four
times more to grow your own than to buy at the market. The home veggie
garden is strictly a hobby. You wanna have extra money for veggies, get
yourself a weekend job at your local titty bar, tell your old lady your're
checking out the melons. Have fun.