New Garden Area Dilemma

[TheSeedObsesser]

I managed to get an acre or two of land to use from a neighbor - for free, she just wants part of my crop if she sees anything good. (Should I get this in paper? My dad thinks so.) The area's an old, abandoned field full of very tall grass and other weeds - too tall to mow over. The new potential garden area is also a very long walk from the house, so there isn't a way to get any heavy equipment way back there. Any suggestions on how to cut this grass down/ till it? I could probably buy a scythe for the grass but that wouldn't get me any further than that.

To keep the weeds down, I was thinking of using smother crops. Lines of squash with a cover crop of buckwheat in between. The buckwheat would be cut back as the squash grows. But this would require tilling first (see above).

Or as an alternative, to save me some fuel/time if it so happens that I need to drag a tiller to the new area - I could rely solely on the squash to shade the weeds out, and only till down the lines that I want to plant. This is after I cut down that grass and then maybe mow it. I would have to keep the lanes with grass regularly mowed when I'm waiting for the squash to grow. Would this lead to issues later down the line?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Whatever happens, I don't want to be planting any "wimpy" crops that can't deal well with weeds. Oh, and the area is surrounded by trees on - two sides? I don't think that those would be a problem though.

 

[baymule]

Black plastic held down by rocks or bricks to keep it from blowing? The black plastic would "cook" the weeds/grass in the sun. An acre or two is a lot of black plastic, but if you got the big contractor packs at Lowes or similar store, it might work. Gobs and gobs of cardboard? Any other ideas on how to smother out this much grass anyone?

Tilling it would probably wind up with a lot of grass wound up in the tiller tines.

 

[PhilaGardener]

I go the cardboard route. You can pick up a lot of it from recycling bins (this is recycling, isn't it!) and it does a great job smothering the weeds. Plus, after a year you add a new layer and it breaks down. I am so tired of picking plastic fragments out of the soil for years after it starts to break up.

Sounds like a good challenge! Have fun with it!

 

[digitS']

An acre is a huge garden, SeedO. I'm someone with big gardens but an acre (or, 2), without machinery, is intimidating!

For some reason, I'm uncomfortable even talking about an estimated size of my gardens. Maybe because I think I should have it down to gnat's eyebrow if I start talking about feet. Maybe because the sprinkler lines leave out an area of the garden extension, I have to keep it weedfree but don't know how to count it. Maybe because I know the whole thing is really too big for me to do the kind of job on it that I really want to do.

If I count all of it including what the water can't reach: it's a little more than 12,000 square feet. There is 43,560 square feet in an acre. Toss in the 3 beds I have here at home in the backyard, I still don't have more than a third of an acre in cultivation.

I was offered an additional 30' x 200' (6,000sqft) piece of ground this year and was concerned that I might not be able to turn it down in 2015. Yeah, it might have been insisted on by the property owner. Fortunately, I won't have to care for that ground. I don't need it and don't want to be over there trying to keep the weeds out of it!

What I could think to do is plant it to 3 different cover crops - spring, summer and fall. Run the tiller thru it before each sowing, so that is 3 tills on that ground with maybe weedwhacking or mowing before. There would be no return on the investment of time, fuel and machinery until the following year, when I still would not know what to do with it.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

I would think even trying to keep a couple acre garden tilled for weed control would be daunting. Certainly would for me. Could you maybe use less land than that?
One of your biggest issues is going to be needing to get the tiller, tools, water, etc to the garden. You may have to come up with a plan for that before you put too much work into it. Whew! Makes me tired just to think about it!

 

[thistlebloom]

Here's a thought about the initial cultivation and tilling in of all the grass and weeds- could you arrange for a local neighbor or farmer with a tractor to do some mowing and tilling?

I pay a neighbor $40 /hour to mow the weeds down along our road easement, and he also brushed and tilled my new garden area a couple of years ago. It takes surprisingly little time to get a lot done with a tractor. Even if you were only able to do it this fall, at least you would be starting with some fresh cultivation next spring.

Doing all that by hand would be overwhelming for one person to keep up with, especially with all of your other responsibilities.

I've done things the slow hard way. I used to weedwhip and mow that easement with an old push mower and it took days and days to get it done. My neighbors tractor does it in less than an hour!
It's worth more than double what he charges me for it....but that should be our little secret.

 

[hosspak]

Wow, I see some very big ambitions in these posts. I will just have to be satisfied with my 12 x 40 foot garden. I didn't see where everyone is from but here's a thought. Can you contact the local fire department and see if they could do controlled burns for those areas? Worst case, they could say no! What does it hurt to ask? But you have to find a way to remove the weed roots so there is room for the veggies. The cardboard and hay method is about the easiest way for weed control with no further tilling after the land is cleared. Cover the tilled area with cardboard, then cover that with a good 4 inches of hay/straw. Then do it again the falling winter after the garden is done. When planting, just make a hole through the straw and cardboard. The layers will hold in the water.
Check out this video;

 

[Carol Dee]

Is the area fenced? Could you put out some goats until they knocked down most of the big weeds to where a mower could finish?

 

[Nyboy]

Another vote for cardboard but I like the goat idea. Will you be planting eggplant? You never told have you made it or if you like it.

 

[digitS']

I checked on black plastic at Lowe's. (I'm also someone who doesn't like plastic in the garden, however ... it's commonly used.)

1,000 square feet roll at $44.

Steve

43,000 square feet in an acre