Keep Weeds Out Without Chemicals
Almost anyone can keep weeds out of their garden if they’re willing to use enough chemicals. After all, that’s what the government encourages farmers to do.
But as we know, those chemicals can’t just be washed off your crops. They soak in and negatively affect the taste and nutrition value of your fruits and vegetables.
Not to mention the fact that those chemicals can cause long-term physical problems for anyone eating food that has come into contact with them.
Fortunately, there are natural ways to keep weeds out of your garden. And that’s a good thing because in addition to being ugly, weeds can steal the essential nutrients, minerals and moisture your vegetables and fruits need.
Cover Walking Rows
The first thing you can do is cover your walking rows with bark chips or mulch consisting of shredded leaves or straw. This will save time because you won’t have to till, hoe and weed those rows. It will allow you to focus your time on the areas of the garden that produce your food.
Cover Your Soil
Another way to eliminate weeds from your garden is by avoiding bare soil. You can accomplish this with mulch during the spring and summer growing months. Your best bet here is a natural mulch such as compost.
Then, each time it rains, your plants will receive both moisture and fertilizer. Use about a two-inch layer of mulch in an area approximately one foot in diameter around each plant. Straw or shredded leaves are good enough for the other growing row areas.
Use Cover Crops
Finally, plant cover crops for the colder months. They will provide nitrogen for the soil, help maintain moisture and reduce weeds. Examples of cover crops are rye, hairy vetch, buckwheat, sorghum-sudangrass and clover.
Give these cover crops time to get established by planting them about four weeks before the first frost. Rake your seeds into the soil so that birds don’t steal them. Water them if necessary and mow them when they start to get long. Cut at the base of the plant to kill them before you plant seeds in the spring.
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My mother taught me several years ago to use newspapers and then put some grass clippings or compost on top to keep the wind from blowing hem away. This is difficult to do especially if the wind is blowing. The newspapers and mulch will then rot and fertilize the soil. Then I decided to use cardboard. The worms like that and I put mulch or straw on top.
I do this to my potatoes with cardboard between rowsand then cover it all with straw and put straw over my potatoes. The potatoes come up through the straw and I produce more and bigger potatoes and don’t have to plow or hoe them. The few weeds that come up through the straw are easy to pull.
Well, if you have a large area that requires that much mulch to prevent weeds, power to you. If on the other hand you have somewhat a smaller area to grow your veggies, like a raised vegetable box(s), then what I have for you is my good ole standby tool, it is called a hoe. It is easy to use, requires a little elbow grease and you may perspire just a bit. However, by using this tool by the end of the night you will feel the complete satisfaction of a job well done. When you go to bed at night you will be well rested when you wake up the next day.
I visit my raise garden at the very least every other day. I examine the crops and any possible weeds that need to be pulled out. By control them when they are young and small I don’t seem to have any major problems. I call this staying on top of my garden. :-)
I. Use. Vinegar. Epson salt and a bit of dawn dish detergent. This is used on any weeds along fences.
The use of raised beds and hydroponics (DIY)
Still involves eliminating ground weeds.
Farm to Table
Kill weeds: try hot white vinegar, no residue and doesn’t seem to hurt anything else.
I use a weed burner for my vegetable garden. You can purchase one on Amazon. I bought the “Red Dragon” after doing the research. It hooks up to a regular propane tank, and has a trigger, so when you are not burning, there is only a small pilot flame. This saves a lot of gas, over one that is always on. Take a broomstick handle and screw a piece of metal one foot by one foot to the end, so you can use it to shield the plants you don’t want to burn. Works great, no chemicals, and saves a lot of time.
Preepers, I use grass clippings because they are readily available and free. When I cut the grass I collect them and put around the plants and walking areas. Even in bare spots in the lawn. They work really well. They hold in moister during the dry times, shade the roots, don’t allow weeds to grow, and can be used as compost when you till every year. Happy gardening! Joshatc
me2
Great idea, Joshua. Thanks for sharing it.