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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl

2045 Posts

Brenda
Lucas Ohio
USA
2045 Posts

Posted - Feb 15 2006 :  6:19:52 PM  Show Profile
I am daydreaming about my garden and wondering how I am going to control weeds THIS year.

Last year I tried hoeing them out when they were tiny but we went away for vacation for a week and when I got back they had taken over! I pulled by hand but that never ends, and pulling out the big ones just gives the smaller ones room to grow, and I end up pulling up my vegetables prematurely!

I bought one roll of landscape fabric and I think that will work fine for around the bigger plants like the tomatoes and maybe the cucumbers but can't see it working for things like corn or peas or lettuce or other wide-row crops where the spacing is narrow.

My grandmother used to burn weeds - the piles would smolder for days - it killed the seeds - but now we have open burning laws and I would have to get a permit, plus my "neighborhood association" probably wouldn't like it.

I have one weed that just covers the garden and I know each plant had millions of seeds so I'm thinking its coming back this year and I want to beat it without resorting to Roundup like all my neighbors use.

I don't even know what this stupid weed is! It has a tiny white flower and looks like it might be an interesting herb but has no taste or smell to speak of.

One year I used straw for mulch but ended up getting thistle seed in my garden and the next year I had a different battle to fight.

So I'm looking for tried and true tips and tricks for identifying and beating weeds organically.


You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow

Julia
True Blue Farmgirl

1949 Posts

Julia
Shelton WA
USA
1949 Posts

Posted - Feb 15 2006 :  9:40:27 PM  Show Profile
boy do I understand. Last year my husband got some soil for me froem a friend. Unfortunaly, it wasn't sterile soil. SO it had tons of weed seed init. Ugh! I fought it all season long. A friend who is a landscaper told me to use glass clippings as a thick mulch. Keep it in black garbage sacks to heat it up to kill any seed that might be in the grass. I have been putting it at the premeter of my flower bed and on the path ways in my garden. The worms love it and it will be good to turn back in the soil at the end of the seeason. I am hoping it will work for me. If not, I'll be pulling weeds just like Adam!

"...the setting sun is like going into the very presence of God." Elizabeth Von Arnim
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BlueEggBabe
True Blue Farmgirl

417 Posts

Susan
PA
417 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  05:44:07 AM  Show Profile
Brenda,
If you are lucky, your weed is chickweed!!
One of the most nutritious wild weeds.
They do reseed prolifically, however, so if you don't want it in your garden you need to pull it out in the spring before it goes to seed.
Fortunately, it is very easy to pull out and my chickens love it.
Here is a link to some photos and info about chickweed:
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html
Good Luck!!

Sue







www.farmatcoventry.com
"If more of us valued good food, cheer and song above hoarded gold,the world would be a merrier place."
J.J.R.Tolkien
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Mari-dahlia
True Blue Farmgirl

269 Posts

Marianne
Hoosick Falls New York
USA
269 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  06:39:51 AM  Show Profile
I mulch with newspaper I have saved all winter, then put a layer of mulch on top. You would not believe haow well it works. Your only weeds will be the ones where you missed the newspaper. I mulch with grass clippings. They break down fast and add nitrogen to the soil.
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lonestargal
True Blue Farmgirl

607 Posts

Kristi
Texas
607 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  08:22:05 AM  Show Profile
I know exactly how you feel. One year my parents got a me a trailer full of compost that was free from the city. Yeah we will not be doing that again. It was full of weeds and I ended up giving up on the garden that year because I couldn't keep up with the weeds.

This year I'm doing something different though. DH has built me raised beds and between each bed and down the walkways, I'm putting landscape fabric. I know I will still have some weeds that will grow in the beds but hopefully I'll be keeping it under control a lot easier.
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Shirley
True Blue Farmgirl

734 Posts

Shirley
Olympia Wa
USA
734 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  11:04:38 AM  Show Profile
We have a troybilt to, but we havent used it for several years.
We do the layering thing on our garden now.
In the fall we put newpaper all over the garden and then put leaves on top of that, the soil is so soft and full of good nutrients and no WEEDS, except where you missed with the paper like marianne said.
We have had the best gardens over the last few years.
There are books out there on layered gardening
shirley
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therusticcottage
True Blue Farmgirl

4439 Posts

Kay
Vancouver WA
USA
4439 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  11:35:30 AM  Show Profile
Newspaper and layering works wonderfully. I used to have the book Lasagna Gardening and the author recommended using wet newspaper then putting the layers on top. The earthworms love this! I'm fighting weeds in my gravel driveway and garden area. I've tried vinegar and salt but nothing has worked. Guess I'll be hand pulling these out as I really don't want to use Roundup.

Mine is just a little old fashioned garden where the flowers come together to praise the Lord, and teach all who look upon them to do likewise.
-- Celia Thaxter


http://therusticcottage.etsy.com

http://rusticcottage.blogspot.com/
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DaisyFarm
True Blue Farmgirl

1646 Posts

Diane
Victoria BC
Canada
1646 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  12:05:38 PM  Show Profile
Unless your driveway is too long to make it feasible, try using a kettle full of boiling water for your driveway. Works like a charm. It never ceases to amaze me how weeds can grow through a 1/16" crack!
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Jana
True Blue Farmgirl

482 Posts

Jana
Eau Claire Wisconsin
USA
482 Posts

Posted - Feb 16 2006 :  9:40:03 PM  Show Profile
I also love the newspaper and mulch thing. It helps hold in moisture as well during droughts. I almost never have to water my veggie garden.

Jana
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Caroline Sunshine
Farmgirl in Training

22 Posts

Carolyn
Thornton WA
USA
22 Posts

Posted - Apr 02 2006 :  11:26:16 PM  Show Profile
I have a suggestion no one has mentioned for weed-blocking in the garden. I am going to try it this year. I have many huge evergreens on my farm and years and years of accumulated needles have fallen beneath them. This winter I took several wheelbarrows full to muddy areas and it has been wonderful. No mud! There are no weeds growing beneath the trees. I suspect the needles have much to do with this. I am anxious to use them in selective areas of the garden.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl

2045 Posts

Brenda
Lucas Ohio
USA
2045 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  04:33:09 AM  Show Profile
Wow, I haven't been back to this thread for a while- lot of messages.

Susan, thanks for the link to the chickweed pages. That might be what I have - I will have to let a few plants escape the hoe (Probably not a problem there!) and see if they match the picture when they get bigger. Those things just take over my garden!

Caroline, I have mixed pine needles in with compost in the past. They take a long time to decompose (good) and tend to make the soil more acid (bad, in my case...)

Everyone else - thanks for the tips about newspaper compost. I think I will try that this year. Is there any concern about colored inks leaching heavy metals into the soil? My local newspaper prints more and more colored pages each year.


You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl

11381 Posts

Jenny
middle of Utah
USA
11381 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  06:40:51 AM  Show Profile
I tend to use big flakes of straw and then turn them over when the weeds (or oats in my case) sprout...and that gets me through the growing season pretty well. This year, though, we are doing raised beds and that will be a whole different thing...I wil have to try the newspapaper thing maybe. My sis in law used to use carpet samples (upside down) on her garden path...worked great but I didn't like the look much. Weeds are always a problem. I deal with purslane, morning glory ..bindweed... and pigweed here more than anything.

Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com
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garliclady
True Blue Farmgirl

274 Posts


Reidsville NC
274 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  07:28:57 AM  Show Profile
Chick weed is all over our garlic field each year despite mulch. We used to spend lots of hours pulling it up. But now we leave it . Our garlic is well established (because of fall planting) long before chickweed makes its appearance. One year we cleared away all the chick weed out of several rows and never weeded the chickweed out of the others. The rows that were weeded then began to produce terrible summer weeds with big tap roots that were much worse than chickweed and the chick weed that was left in the other rows seemed to shade out these other hot weather weeds and the chickweed was dying in the summewr heat by garlic harvest time. So now we think of chick weed as a carpet/mulch for our garlic. I do have to pull chickweed out of our garden beds where we direct seed though. I wish chickweed was the worse weed we had. The worst weed we have is a pig weed that has stickers and beutiful purple varigated leaves it loves the summer heat and is terrible especially when you get stuck!

My Farm http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&ext=1&groupid=140532&ck=
My Recipes http://recipecircus.com/recipes/garliclady/
]
My blog http://www.epicourier.com/Garliclady/
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl

11381 Posts

Jenny
middle of Utah
USA
11381 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  07:30:21 AM  Show Profile
yep...that pigweed is my problem!! I hate it!! If you don't get it early it gets awful!!

Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com
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FarrarFarmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl

330 Posts

Lynda
Frohna Missouri
USA
330 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  08:50:41 AM  Show Profile
What is pigweed? I don't know that I have ever heard of it. Maybe I have, but it doesn't sound familiar. I know I have chickweed and milkweed. Is there a pig thistle? I thought that's what my husband called it yesterday. We have lots of spots throughout the yard where it is growing, well, "like a weed." It is very wide across has pointy spiked leaves and kind of lays flat on the ground and then grows pretty tall? He said it came from bird seed that I had bought last year winter - not this past one, but the one before. From what you girls are saying, it comes from straw that you used on your gardens. We put straw down last year in the garden to try and keep the weeds down and the moisture in. So maybe that's really where it is coming from. All I know is that it's like a land mine field in our yard and not very safe for the grand sons to run and play.

I was going to get a very strong Round Up to kill them because dh says that you can't dig them out - roots are too big. Not really too keen on that idea, but don't know what else to do. How do you get rid of it?

I like the newspaper idea for the garden, I think I will have to try that this year, too.

Thanks for your input and suggestions. I know I can always count on them from you all.

Blessings on your day.

In His hands,
Lynda L.

Pray in faith and you will not live in doubt.
www.pamperedchef.biz/lorenzfamilycooks
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl

2045 Posts

Brenda
Lucas Ohio
USA
2045 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  2:48:42 PM  Show Profile
Around here I have a weed that I call pigweed - it is awful, it has thousands of seeds. The one saving grace is that it is a big enough plant, you can pull it up before the seed heads mature. My grandmother calls it redroot because, you guessed it, it has a red root.

I laughed when I read about Amaranth in Rodale's Organic Gardening because I think pigweed is a variety of amaranth.... should be pretty easy to grow!!!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator

3579 Posts

Anne E.
Elsinore Utah
USA
3579 Posts

Posted - Apr 03 2006 :  4:52:20 PM  Show Profile
We call redroot "pigweed" down here, too. It's so funny - when we moved to the farm several years ago, we didn't really worry about weeds, because the most ferocious thing we had seen as far as weeds go were a few foxtails and some dandelions in the lawn - WOW, were we unpleasantly surprised when we had redroot that was, I'm not exaggerating, SIX FEET TALL in some areas of the farm. We were devastated. We had no idea. We can laugh about it now, but we really couldn't even see the field part of the farm from the house due to the weeds. Ah - the differences in farm and city...

I don't really mind the pigweed anymore - we have a pretty good handle on it, and it really is SO satisfying to pull - you get so darn much weed for your energy spent pulling, that it's kind of fun (in a sort of sick way).

Bindweed, however, is a true nemesis. We fight that stuff all the time. It's getting better by the year, and grazing at key times helps, but now that I've read some of the information here, I'm wondering about the possibility of getting huge reams of newsprint and layering 12 acres with it!....

XOXO, Libbie

"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe
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