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Post by synergy on Mar 31, 2013 20:46:40 GMT -5
Yikes, the edges I mulched with big wood chips over cardboard are growing weeds like buttercup and grass and impossible to hoe . The soil I have added composted horse bedding to for years is light and fairly easy to hoe out the very happily growing weeds . A new section that needs amending had manured horse bedding added in winter and now will be turned a bit with the shovel while I plant potatoes . Yes I am finding happy worms but jeesh I am muscle sore . If it remains this tough year after year there is no way I could keep up this garden that is only 60 x 60 feet . I am hopeful the weeds diminish year after year? I would be happy with just chickweed : )
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 1, 2013 0:24:07 GMT -5
The primary key to diminishing weeds is to not let weeds go to seed in your garden.
The secondary key is: don't import weed seeds (in things like manure).
I don't mind non-rhizome weeds growing in my garden as long as they get chopped off before seeding. If they go to seed I try to cut them off and burn the seed pods.
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on Apr 1, 2013 6:57:59 GMT -5
As another would-be deep mulcher, non dig gardener, how do you get over the following problems? 1. 'Don't let weeds go to seed in your garden'. But we are surrounded by open countryside full of seeding wild flowers (weeds) and trees (willows) with the seed blowing in the wind. Anything which lands on a spot of deep rich mulch germinates and gets going. 2. Acidification. Even though we are on limey clay soil, where the mulch is nice and deep, when I plant brassicas they are now getting yellow leaves. I can only get rid of this effect by going back to digging and getting the well rotted mulch incoporated into the soil. Should I be liming on top of the mulch? 3. Things that love the deep mulch: potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucurbits in general. Carrots are always a pain to sow and weed in this system.
I'm wondering about a hybrid garden with a rotation in which I use deep mulch in some areas and for certain crops, and the usual dig, rake and hoe method for brassicas and where tiny seeds must be sown.
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Post by ottawagardener on Apr 1, 2013 8:21:45 GMT -5
bertiefox: I use a mulch system for gardening and because I am continually adding to the mulch, I don't have too much problem with seeds germinating into it except from those very close by. I also have clear, mowed margins. I don't use a very deep mulch system and therefore can easily move aside the mulch to sow so-called row crops like carrots or you could always dig and fill a trench then sow.
My biggest issue last year was earwigs and I've heard that certain bugs like earwigs and slugs can be a problem in heavy mulch systems.
I'm all for hybrid systems. Do what you need to do for your system to work for you and the environment.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 1, 2013 8:39:28 GMT -5
The dispersal of weed seeds is like pollination: A highly localized effect which diminishes extremely rapidly with distance. As far as I can tell, by looking at my garden, weed seeds pretty much fall nearly straight down. I'll get a circle of weeds about 5 feet across where I allowed a plant to go to seed. Then an occasional plant up to about 10 feet away (I figure they're moved on my feet, or by the tiller.) Seeds with wings might move a little further than other seeds, but I don't see the common wind-carried wildflowers (dandelions, willows, thistles) germinating in my garden. I don't see bindweed germinating either, those persist only as rhizomes. I've started taking the digging fork to things with rhizome roots. It's a lot of work, but it sure slows them down better than tilling or chopping off the top.
If I am able to do perfect weeding all season long in an area of the garden, then that area is a joy to weed the following year. There are some seeds and rhizomes that persist in the soil for a few years, but they are much more manageable. Near perfect weeding takes consistency... Week after week of paying close attention. I can only do it in small areas of the garden, among plants that really suffer from weed pressure. Later in the season, I often end up doing seed head patrol: going through the garden with lopers and collecting seed heads for burning.
It seems to me that lime is the wrong thing to be putting on limey clay soil: It's already got too much lime! What if you poked holes into the clay and added an acidifier? Seems like that's what you are doing by turning in the mulch.
And yes, I am proud to say that I do adequate enough weeding in some areas of the garden that I can tell where a single plant went to seed the previous year. One of the considerations for where I plant various crops is what sort of weeding I did in that area the previous year.
A hybrid garden could work well. Give each plant the conditions that it thrives in.
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