small garden to a 1/3 of an acre - looking for advice

[ryan112ryan]

Hello!

So I have done several gardens over the past few years, but this year I will be taking things to the next level. I am going from 400 square feet to 1/3 of an acre. This is a big jump for sure, but I will have help.

I want to be smart about how I do things to minimize work and maximize harvest. I also am worried about weeds at this scale. We are all organic and don't use plastic.

Any suggestions on how to approach this larger area would be great!

New space: bit.ly/hzq82j

 

[seedcorn]

I bed mine down with straw to keep weeds down.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you are here!

1/3 of an acre, or about 14,000 square feet. Think 140' x 100'. That's about 4 times as big as mine. Just trying to put it in persepctive for me.

What crops do you plan to grow? You approach different ones different ways. Things you transplant you can usually mulch and really cut back on the weeds. You have to invest the initial time to do the mulching, but to me it is well worth it.

I also mulch in between the rows, in the walking space, to keep weeds out of there. I'm not certified organic so this would probably not work for you, but I use things like the cardboard from cereal boxes (the chemicals in the paint probably rule this out for you), the heavy paper (without the layer of plastic) from paper chicken feed bags, or things like that in between rows, then put weathered wood chips, wheat straw the chickens have worked over, or dried grass trimmings on top of that to hold the other stuff in place. It works pretty well without the paper product underneath, but I find it keeps my bermuda grass down better and keeps the soil more evenly moist whenI use the paper products under the mulch.

Some things you grow from seeds can be mulched once they reach a certain size, cucumbers for example. You usually have to clean the weeds out of them once, maybe twice, before they are big enough to mulch.

Some things become self-mulching, potatoes for example. If you plant them close enough together, once they start to grow they pretty much crowd out the weeds. I clean the weeds out when I hill them up and by the time they are hilled up properly they provide a living green mulch. So for them, you mulch them by controlling the space of your planting and hope you don't have any that fail to sprout which gives weeds and grass an opening. Cabbage, broccoli and some other things will also self-mulch once they get to a certain size, but you have to watch the spacing. If you plant them too close together you can cut production. Too far apart and they don't self-mulch. It is trial and error for what works for you.

Other than mulching with dead organic mulch or with living green mulch, both in the row and in between the rows, I can't really think of much else other than time and a lot of weeding. Weeds do consume a huge amount of time. Hope this is your day job.

Again, welcome to the forum.

 

[lesa]

As others have said- mulching is the absolute key. Even if weeds do grow up in your mulch, they are so much easier to pull. The other key is never to let them get big or go to seed. If you spend some time each day, keeping the weeds down- it is much better than not weeding for 2 weeks and then trying to get it done! First of all, when the weeds get big, you run the risk of damaging the roots on your veggies...And secondly, when you look at all those weeds, it is easy to throw your hands up and let them take over!!
Tell us more about your plans! Good luck!

 

[lighthawk]

I mow about 2 acres of lawn so I use a lawn broom behind my ATV to collect the clippings and mulch the garden. Last fall I planted the garlic in about 4 inches of mulch and they came up right through it but nothing else.
My first year I tried landscape cloth and weeds came up right through it. Never again. Waste of money. Besides when I till the clippings in with compost in the spring I wind up with some of the softest best aerated soil I have ever had.

 

[ryan112ryan]

I bed mine down with straw to keep weeds down.

I noticed you said straw instead of hay, is this because hay might contain seeds? would you only recommend straw? Is there a rule of thumb for how many bales per ___ sq/ft so I can figure out how much I need?

 

[seedcorn]

I bed mine down with straw to keep weeds down.

I noticed you said straw instead of hay, is this because hay might contain seeds? would you only recommend straw? Is there a rule of thumb for how many bales per ___ sq/ft so I can figure out how much I need?

Actually hay will have less weed seed than straw will. I use straw because it's handy and historically cheaper. Hay (I'm talking alfalfa hay and not grass hay) would be nice and if I wasn't so cheap, that's what I'd use. Straw spreads easier as well. Good bale of hay will weigh about 2X what straw does with straw covering more ground.

You might get in touch with some farmers, they may have some round bales that are going out of condition that you can buy real cheap. Round bales will just roll out, then you can spread it. to plant in, just seperate the place for the plant, then recover after planted.

 

[wifezilla]

I use straw AFTER my ducks have rooted through it to eat any seeds as well as poop all over it for some organic fertilizer.

 

[journey11]

You could just leave enough space in the rows to be able to run a tiller through there lightly as needed to cultivate. That's what my dad does with his big potato patch. I don't know how much mulch you have at your disposal, but it would take alot on a plot that size. If you can come by that much mulch, it would be nicer for your soil. You could also do the rolls of black fabric mulch and plant your seedlings through it (and till the paths). That's how the big tomato farms around here do theirs.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

sweet! my garden is about 50x150 ft with a second area the same size for corn. i'm going to use hay as mulch. i'm going with lots and lots of mulch so i wont have to weed. weeding is horrible to me, but some people like to... :/ cant imagine why...
anyway, companion planting is good to confuse and deter bugs. or you could do a bit of herbs around the whole thing. lots of herbs and flowers deter bad bugs and bring in bees!

good luck!