veggie garden, tips anyone?

[dixie_belle]

Every year I plant a veggie garden and every year I fight a losing battle with weeds. I thought this year I'd put newspaper down around the veggies in an attempt to keep the weeds from germinating. However, it can get quite windy here up on top of this hill where we live. Does anyone know, can I put manure on top of the newspaper to hold it down? Maybe it will fertilize at the same time as it is an anchor. Or, will it be "fresh" and cause the plants to wither? I thought at first I'd spread hay down on top of the newspaper but that would be worse because it's full of seeds so I think I'd be making the problem worse. And, being a thrifty person (cheap) I'd prefer not to have to go out and buy bales of straw. There must be something I can do to keep the weeds out of the garden. They are raised beds so stuff has got to be blowing in? But I'll be planting this week because I think we are finally done with winter.

 

[Debby - LB]

cardboard is really good for this

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I know someone who went to the local carpet stores and asked for scraps to small to sell. She then ran the scrap pieces between her rows to suppress weeds. The bonus benefit for her was it was cleaner when she was working in the garden, at least for a while and she just pulled them up at the end of the season and rolled them up to use them the following year. I haven't tried it nor seen it in person but when she told me about it she was pretty happy with the outcome.

 

[disneyhorse]

You can put cardboard or newspaper down and cover with a very little bit of dirt. If weeds grow, their roots will be very shallow and easy to pull up.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I had Massive problems with weeds overtaking My garden beds. I spent a lot of time during winter making sure any weeds that were growing into or near the Vegie garden beds were pulled out or killed.

I used straw over the top of the beds this season and while on the more expensive side it seemed to be the only thing that held during the hot summer months. I had the occasional weed come thru but it was a Massive improvement on the previous years .

Good Luck

 

[Marsha Cassada]

If you are not strictly organic, you can apply Roundup on the garden before you plant. I use my horse/chicken compost on my raised bed gardens and it is pretty weedy stuff. New raised beds are the worst, I've found. After they are a few years old, handpulling is easy. But the first year we use Roundup. Some of those weeds are coming up from a foot or more down and their roots cannot be dug out. A dribble of Roundup on their leaves and that kills them. This is the second summer for one of our beds. It is in an old iron hay feeder and has a top (if we want vegetables, everything has to be covered up here). I can't get in to dig with a spade, so the Roundup is the best answer. Next year, it won't be necessary. I have potatoes planted there now and we will Roundup the weeds before planting the warm weather things.

I don't know the name of the worst weed, but it spreads underground and is tough as blazes. When I try to pull it up, even digging down with a hand tool, it just breaks off. It must be related to the $! bindweed somehow!! I don't mess around with it anymore; we just Roundup it.

Since our raised beds are planted thickly, I don't use mulch on them. But I've heard newspaper is good. Rolypolys will harbor in it, so if they are a problem for you be sure to lift the wet newspaper sometimes and check for them. They are destructive little devils.

The best mulch I've ever used is cotton seed mulch. It is NOT the same as cotton burr mulch. It does not blow away and retains moisture fantastically. Can't use it around chickens though, as they love to excavate in it.

 

[lucky seven]

Can you use regular mulch that is used around flower plants? I have the same problem, I'm saving newspapers to use also for my raised garden beds. I have a customer who uses paper bags. She swears by this method. My tomato plants were full of bugs and the tomatoes were full of black spots.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Can you use regular mulch that is used around flower plants? I have the same problem, I'm saving newspapers to use also for my raised garden beds. I have a customer who uses paper bags. She swears by this method. My tomato plants were full of bugs and the tomatoes were full of black spots.

Not sure what you mean by "regular mulch". Pine bark mulch carries the honey oak fungus. I never use it any more. The cypress, coco shells, all the rest just blow or wash away. The paper sacks sound like a good idea. How about a roll of Kraft paper? That weed barrier that comes in a roll might work. We used to lay it under the decorative rock used for landscaping in NM. Cut a slice in it for each plant. You'll have to anchor it with something--maybe just dirt.

Just planted cucumber and squash today. A little too early, but it looks as though the cold weather is over for us. I planted the seeds in a can with both ends cut out, so I can tell where they are. Also keeps grubs from eating the roots. The stem just grows out of the can and you leave it in place. It's nice for things planted in hills instead of rows. I write on the can with magic marker.

You can go to the mesonet.org and find out the soil temp and moisture level in your area.

 

[jacks'thunder]

I'm not sure of your area and how wet it is but I probably would not use carpet where I live. I would have an issue with it holding moisture and rot or(if its a dry area) it absorbing a lot of my precious moisture. So for me carpet would not be a good fit. But what about those yard bags? You could split them down the sides and get a good length out of them, and cut them to fit. I'd go gather a bucket full of palm size rocks to hold it down or if your like our house and have equipment, those teeth that break off from the haybine or hay rake are perfect little spikes to hold the bag down. Like tent stakes. Personally I have tried news paper and I had no luck with it. The weeds/grass came right up through it at my house.

Pictures of the garden when you get rolling on it!

I have all my pots ready to go but our temps are so up and down it usually not safe to plant until after mothers day.

 

[amysue]

I too battle weeds, often to no avail. My husband dumps a bucket load of cow manure and peat from the swamp into my beds and if not kept up, the weeds get out of control. I use the scraps of corn silo plastic covering in my beds. Sometimes if the guys actually do what ibask and clean up after themselves I resort to using cut up poly feed grain sacks. I just hose off the corn silage juice, cut to length and weigh it down with small rocks. I burn planting holes in it in rows for my plants with a lighter (its quicker than cutting little holes). I just put a little dirt over the top to make it look pretty and it works great. In my flower beds I do the same thing with plastic, but I just pland flowers close together to hide the plastic. My husband makes straw bales in the spring, so I have him chop a few to use for mulching my gourds and pumpkins. I plant those in an old cement cattle feed bunk trough a mbps d the straw helps hold the moisture binto the dirt as the water drains from the old cement very quickly. If im out of straw I mulch with the hay chaff left behind in the lofts and waggons after bailing and stacking hay. You could also use the hay left behind that picky animals wont eat. I have one of those and if I rake up under her manger I have a whole wheelbarrow of mulch. Last year my husband surprised me with a pair of weeder geese. They were awesome at their job until they discovered the pond, then they quit on me. Good luck with your garden.

 

[sundancer]

I do the "square foot" gardening. Its awesome. I have no weeds and tons of veggies! Its on the idea of a raised bed garden but its in one foot squares with compost and gardening soil. There are lots of articles reference to it on the internet. I raise everything from tomatoes, green peppers, cukes, sweet potatoes. I don't have a ton of space for a garden nor do I like to weed. This seems to work perfectly for me.

Someone showed gardening with bales of hay. I would love to learn more about that!

Julie

Victory Pass Stable

Maine

 

[vickie gee]

My dad always has a weed free garden. Well at least he did. Last year he had to take chemo for leukemia and so he did not plant much and what little he did burned up since he was too sick to water the garden. This year he planted some, tomatoes and onions for sure and likely some other veggies. Sadly, his cancer came back as colon cancer this year. He has been leukemia free since last July but in February he had a large tumor removed from his colon. It was already stage 3. He has felt great since the tumor was removed but he had his oncology appointment this week and was told that it is not a matter of "if" it returns but "when" it returns and that next time will likely be lungs or liver. He has opted to do the chemo in pill form likely starting next week, so it is doubtful he is going to be able to tend his garden when the side effects of the chemo kick in. But anyhow, the way he kept his garden free of weeds was with leaves. Friends, family, and neighbors give him bagged leaves. He always a mountain of trash bags filled with dry leaves stored by the garden plot since the only thing to rake on his place is pine straw, he does not have the leaves himself. His soil is very sandy which makes it ideal for tomatoes. He is known by folks as the "tomato man" because you would always just pick up a box of tomatoes in the carport if he was not home. Put your $2 in the can, later due to inflation it was your $5 but still a good deal. After his garden is tilled and planted he just spreads a thick layer of leaves between the rows. Works great!

I have not bothered with a garden since moving back to this area of the state. My soil is poor, it is too hot to bother with it and knowing I am going to get sick from the heat in doing the inevitable mowing the yard, weed eating, and tending animals I choose not to attempt gardening here. I only do herbs. I have a huge rosemary bush just outside the back door. I have my thyme, cilantro, oregano, and basil in pots. So here is my gardening tip for herbs: Boxwood basil. The leaves are so tiny there is no need to chop them. And man oh man, basil makes Italian dishes taste so great. It just has that "happy smell."

 

[lucky seven]

Not sure what you mean by "regular mulch". Pine bark mulch carries the honey oak fungus. I never use it any more. The cypress, coco shells, all the rest just blow or wash away. The paper sacks sound like a good idea. How about a roll of Kraft paper? That weed barrier that comes in a roll might work. We used to lay it under the decorative rock used for landscaping in NM. Cut a slice in it for each plant. You'll have to anchor it with something--maybe just dirt.

Just planted cucumber and squash today. A little too early, but it looks as though the cold weather is over for us. I planted the seeds in a can with both ends cut out, so I can tell where they are. Also keeps grubs from eating the roots. The stem just grows out of the can and you leave it in place. It's nice for things planted in hills instead of rows. I write on the can with magic marker.

You can go to the mesonet.org and find out the soil temp and moisture level in your area.

I was talking about the mulch bags that you can buy at flower stores. They usually come in colors from red to black. I have lots of problems with weeds along with high winds and really hot weather. But I'm going to try again. already started making raised beds. I probably won't use them all this year but someday I will have a good size garden with strawberry and fruit bushes along with the veggies.

 

[susanne]

.

For using newspaper, don't use individual sheets, use big, thick sections, like the Sunday front section, opened up full width. Overlap them heavily or weeds will find their way in-between. Soak them well and they won't blow away. By the time the newspaper composts, the weeds will be long dead.

I've turned lawns into garden beds using "lasagna gardening." Alternate layers of newspaper, then composted horse manure, then cardboard, then leaves, then more compost. No weeds and fabulous garden soil. Do this in the fall and your soil will be rich and friable by spring planting.

I collect large sheets of cardboard for starting new garden beds -- the bigger, the better. Newspaper publishers, grocery stores, appliance stores or friends buying new appliances are all excellent sources.

Feed bags (especially those with woven fiber under paper) are fantastic for this. I slit them open and put the print side down

I've used old carpet without any problem of mold or fungus, and we live in one of the dampest parts of the country (NW Oregon). If you turn it upside down, you'll never see ugly colors or patterns.

Check to see what your municipal utilities and maintenance people do with trimmed branches. Many towns and counties chip them right on the truck as they go and are happy to dump them on your lot. Beware of these around your horses, however, as they often mix different tree species, include some that are toxic to horses.

While I have, on rare, specific occasions, used Roundup, I refuse to resort to herbicides for regular use. Instead, when necessary, I use regular, table-strength vinegar. Being one of those danged lefties, I refuse to support Monsanto.

You can go out and buy things the stores sell, and you can pay others to haul away your manure, leaves, and compostables, but why give away your money when what you already have works just as well or better?

 

[Shari]

I just have a small Raised Garden, but the weeds can get crazy.

Normally spray them with a mixture of Vinegar, and Dawn soap. I don't add the salt in that area because I don't want to kill my Veggies.

Around the grape vines... will have to take a photo... I am trying a low ground cover.... like ones you can get from the Stepable plant folks.
Figure the ground cover will help smother the weeds. That's what I hope any way.

This is last year.

 

[vickie gee]

Cool picture Shari. I dream of raised beds, but they are gonna be raised to hip level so I don't have to bend at all.

 

[Shari]

Thank you Vickie.

I need to have them finished, caps need to be put on... they are nice seat level for me. Also need to add more soil to the beds... hopefully this Fall. Once that is done, they will be perfect.

Cinder block is a lot cheaper here than wood... and they should last as long as I am around. You should have someone build you one.