Aaaah! Garden overgrown again! Need suggestions!!

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Get goats.

 

[NRacine]

Our garden is right next to a hay field so there's no keeping weeds and their seeds out. We really pack the veggies in so there's less room for weeds. Next year we are going to try planting some type of clover between the rows. If there's something hardy already there, the weeds don't stand as much of a chance.

 

[mamagardener]

Quote:
That is what I do too. It works pretty well, I also will leave wide spaces sometimes and just keep the weeds mowed.

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Black plastic works great...spray some vinegar I use it straight as white vinegar is cheap. I then cover the weeds with black plastic and the sun cooks the life out of the weeds, in 2 weeks rake up and put down your favorite mulch. I have done 100 x100 with this method and found it cooks the seeds so next year there is less.

 

[Beekissed]

Mulch early and keep it maintained. Its much easier to mulch right after you plant and make sure it doesn't wear thin, than worry about weeding. An occasional weed may pop up through your mulch but these are easy to see and pull.

If it looks out of hand right now.....weed eat and THEN mulch. Newspaper is great but you have to cover it with grass clippings, straw, hay, etc. or it will dry up and blow around in the dry times.

I have permanent pathways also and they are great. I use old hay to mulch and it does well. And, no, it doesn't create more weeds nor does it grow hay in my garden.

 

[insiderart]

In general it's not a good idea to solarize the soil (heat the soil by putting on black plastic) unless you have a disease issue. When you do this you kill beneficial microbes in addition to everything else. You can really cause yourself more trouble than good.

Your best option is to rid your soil of perennial weed overwintering structures and mulch with a biodegradable mulch that will eventually enhance your soil.

 

[TexasVet]

Gorgeous garden. Mine looks like Death Valley; 58 days with no rain and triple-digit heat will do that for you! Just replanted squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers in the old chicken yard (plenty of fertilizer there!), which is under an oak tree. The only shot I've got for a garden is to put it in the shade.

As for weeds, I'm a lazy gardener. Every spring I spray the whole area with RoundUp. It biodegrades in 10 days, so I don't worry too much about it. After at least 10 days, I till everything up, plant, then mulch very heavily between the rows with pooped-up wood shavings. The wood pulls nitrogen out of the soil as it degrades, which counteracts some of the nitrogen in the chicken poo... net effect is no fertilizer burn.

I also use RoundUp between the rows during the growing season. Because it's waterproof in 30 minutes, it doesn't migrate to your other plants.

Kathy, Bellville TX
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