"James" wrote in
:

Brooklyn1, are most Brooklynites about on your same intellectual
level, or are most of them rather sane and decent ????


James




I live really close to Brooklyn and most of them are nicer. He COULD use a
short lesson from Dale Carnegie.

That being said, there are alternatives to the chemical solution. 25 ft^2
is really not that hard to mulch. If you are not having success with your
current mulch, it's time to try a different one.

Do you start your flowers from seed, or do you use seedlings? If the
latter, spreading some black plastic garbage bags over the plot before you
plant them, and then using a trowel to punch holes in the plastic where you
want to plant should work just fine. You can then cover the bags with
whatever mulch you like best- the bags will stop almost anything else from
growing.

Salt hay also works wonders, if you can get it. It's a beach grass, and
suppresses weeds because it high in, well, salt.

Someone else mentioned newspaper. That works well too, and like the plastic
bags, just lay them out over the plot, punch a hole where you want to plant
a flower, and after you're done planting, cover it all up with your cedar.

If you're planting seeds, things get more complicated.

All best,

Chris

On 7/31/11 11:07 AM, James wrote:
By the way, the mulch is cedar bark.

James

To inhibit weeds, you might need a mulch that is more dense.

I use hardwood leaves -- ash, oak, liquidambar, and zelkova -- and allow
them to pack down. I rake the leaves from my lawn and paved areas in
the autumn and place them in my beds. I also place fallen small
branches over the leaves to prevent the wind from removing them. Around
my oak (Quercus lobata), I anchor the leaf mulch with chickenwire pegged
into the ground.

Around my camellias, I use the output of my office shredder.

Both leaves and shredded paper form dense layers throught which weeds
have trouble growing. No, they don't completely prevent weeds; but they
sure do inhibit them.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

Chris, thanks for the ideas... I am planting grown plants from small
containers....

james

In article ,
Chris Thompson wrote:

Someone else mentioned newspaper. That works well too, and like the plastic
bags, just lay them out over the plot, punch a hole where you want to plant
a flower, and after you're done planting, cover it all up with your cedar.

If you're planting seeds, things get more complicated.

I laid out newspapers with long narrow gaps where the furrows for the
seeds were. I then planted the seeds in the furrows. I did that with
cucumbers and then did a similar thing on my other summer gourds
(zucchini and crooknecks), only leaving small squares rather than long
furrows.

VERY few weeds. Peachy!

Priscilla

"Priscilla H. Ballou" wrote in
:

In article ,
Chris Thompson wrote:

Someone else mentioned newspaper. That works well too, and like the
plastic bags, just lay them out over the plot, punch a hole where you
want to plant a flower, and after you're done planting, cover it all
up with your cedar.

If you're planting seeds, things get more complicated.

I laid out newspapers with long narrow gaps where the furrows for the
seeds were. I then planted the seeds in the furrows. I did that with
cucumbers and then did a similar thing on my other summer gourds
(zucchini and crooknecks), only leaving small squares rather than long
furrows.

VERY few weeds. Peachy!

Priscilla


You never mentioned planting peaches!



Chris

Before I plant flowers, if I soak the ground with Roundup, how long would I
have to wait to plant the flowers ?

Read The ****ing LABEL
You don't spray roundup on the ground
If you can't understand the label don't spray
In 25 sqft just dig up the weeds
--
I Know That I Know What I Know