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The Great Roundup/Mulch Debate .... Part Deux
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. Sound plausible? Steve |
#2
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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. |
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