What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Debbie Downer here.

I want to introduce an "element of caution" regarding simply clipping weeds. Cutting at ground level can kill some plants. However, this is certainly not true with all - even all annuals.

Agreed. My main concern about weeds is that they can choke out the cultivated plants, and compete for nutrients. The secondary concern is the rule "never let a weed go to seed". Because the weeds were outgrowing our attempts to eliminate them last year, we ended up just cutting some off to prevent them from seeding. In the rural garden, it was so bad that I was actually mowing between the rows - and it kept clogging the mower! We gradually tilled everywhere except within a few inches of the plants; but running out of time, we cut the weeds nearest the plants for about 10 rows. Those weeds were left in bands just like fertilizer, to hopefully restore their nutrients to the row. The only weed that looked like it might still produce seed was purslane, so we selectively pulled that.

The reason I am considering using cutting more widely - aside from the reduction in labor - is that there was some root damage & stunting where we pulled larger weeds from the root zone. It will be an experiment... I hope to do some rows 50/50, half pulled, half cut off, to observe whatever differences there might be between the two methods.

me, Mom is a bare dirt person. anything green other than a painted frog or plant that she wants must be killed.

DW & I have always been bare dirt weeders too - until the heavy growth last year made that impractical (and physically stressful). From 2005-2016, the weeds were few enough that we could hand-weed the entire 10,000 square foot rural garden in a couple weeks, and just do touch-up for the rest of the summer. Last year, it sometimes took us 2 days to weed one row. Due to all the weed seed buildup from the two fallow years, we anticipate heavy weed pressure for at least a few more years... so while I don't usually mind the exercise, we have to get more efficient.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Agreed. My main concern about weeds is that they can choke out the cultivated plants, and compete for nutrients. The secondary concern is the rule "never let a weed go to seed". Because the weeds were outgrowing our attempts to eliminate them last year, we ended up just cutting some off to prevent them from seeding. In the rural garden, it was so bad that I was actually mowing between the rows - and it kept clogging the mower! We gradually tilled everywhere except within a few inches of the plants; but running out of time, we cut the weeds nearest the plants for about 10 rows. Those weeds were left in bands just like fertilizer, to hopefully restore their nutrients to the row. The only weed that looked like it might still produce seed was purslane, so we selectively pulled that.

The reason I am considering using cutting more widely - aside from the reduction in labor - is that there was some root damage & stunting where we pulled larger weeds from the root zone. It will be an experiment... I hope to do some rows 50/50, half pulled, half cut off, to observe whatever differences there might be between the two methods.

DW & I have always been bare dirt weeders too - until the heavy growth last year made that impractical (and physically stressful). From 2005-2016, the weeds were few enough that we could hand-weed the entire 10,000 square foot rural garden in a couple weeks, and just do touch-up for the rest of the summer. Last year, it sometimes took us 2 days to weed one row. Due to all the weed seed buildup from the two fallow years, we anticipate heavy weed pressure for at least a few more years... so while I don't usually mind the exercise, we have to get more efficient.

For me weeds represent a harbinger of unwanted fungal activity. Leaf spot alone is problematic, much less the other forms that crop in the heat and moisture of our deep southern summers. I recognize that weeds soak nutrients, but the water in the greenery absorbs solar infrared heat before it gets to the root zone, although any water is good for cooling roots probably. Reduced airflow helps humidity and fungus too and all in all at least a tight haircut is necessary around if there is no mulch on that garden plant.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up, one of out neighbors used the weeding philosophy of worst last. If some of his crops were really bad and some weren't all that bad, he's do the not that bad first with the thought that by the time he got the really bad done the not so bad would be bad. He thought that saved him labor, I can't say for sure.

Dad would grow about 3/4 acre of tobacco and 2 acres of corn, rotating to different areas in hayfields every couple of years. He'd keep an area maybe 3' wide clear all around those fields but 3' away was where the hay started. The outside rows were always stunted, just did not grow as well as the interior rows. I figure that was due to competition from the hay roots. It could have been competition for nutrients but I suspect it was more competition for water. Probably both.

Dad did not do the worst last that I noticed. Th tobacco crop was out money crop, it got priority. And besides, unless we had a bunch of ran where we couldn't work in there for a long time, it didn't get that bad. Not with five kids and each having their own hoe.

 

[flowerbug]

i enjoy gardening because of the exercise and good things i can grow for later eating and the flowers and being outside and all that other good stuff, fresh air, birdies, wind-chimes.

just to not be inside all the time which is way too easy for me to do. like, i've managed to waste an hour and a half trying to find actual useful rhubarb research... i think i should at least go outside for a few minutes today even if it is cold. just to pretend i'm doing something useful.

 

[Marie2020]

My pea starts are doing great! Look how big they are! They grow super fast! These are just for fun. I'll plant lots more once I put all my seedlings outside.

They look like the are growing really well

 

[Marie2020]

My first part of my fence is completed. So the girls are much safer. Now longing for a raised bed so I don't have to bend so low.

I have wooden pallets that my fence man said I should burn, wouldn't they be of good use to bulk up a raised bed?

 

[flowerbug]

My first part of my fence is completed. So the girls are much safer. Now longing for a raised bed so I don't have to bend so low.

I have wooden pallets that my fence man said I should burn, wouldn't they be of good use to bulk up a raised bed?

what do you mean by "bulk up"?

 

[flowerbug]

i was thinking it was going to be too cold out there to do much today, but when i went outside it wasn't all that bad at all, so wandered around, looked at some of the first flowers of spring and did some weeding and almost scraped an entire garden (a few hundred square feet). i didn't quite finish it, but i can do that tomorrow. there's a lot of crushed limestone gravel in it that i'm gradually picking out of the dirt so when i get tired of scraping i can stop and take a breather and pick gravel and toss it back on the neighboring pathway.

in looking at the gardens inside the fence they look pretty good. i thought i would have to get in there and scrape the Spring Whitlow Grass again but i must have done a good job on those last season because i don't see a single one... yet... perhaps it is too early, but i normally do see them out pretty early. i'll hope that actually all my weeding efforts finally paid off back there. i hope...

the normal earliest flower hasn't poked up yet. the blue irises that come up from bulbs.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Today I was at work but since the garden is where the heart is, I spent time learning. I came across a couple of decent tutorials for the beginning green robed alchemists.

1)

2)

 

[ducks4you]

Debbie Downer here.

I want to introduce an "element of caution" regarding simply clipping weeds. Cutting at ground level can kill some plants. However, this is certainly not true with all - even all annuals.

The concept is known to livestock people as annual-forage-systems-grazing . Several fields are used through the growing season. Mostly, grass species are used but not entirely.

Steve

You are NOT a Debbie Downer, but people treat cattle differently than horses. We horse owners want to have sustainable pastures that sustains our horses. We have to minimize parasites, which means cleaning up their pastures so that equine parasites do not sicken the animals that Some of us keep for decades.

Equimax Horse - Parasites

The Most Common Equine Parasites And The Damage They Cause. Use the diagram or the parasite menu to learn more about each parasite. jQuery('map').imageMapResize();

www.equimaxhorse.com

Cattle are best fattened and sent to market after about a year. It is only the cows whose pastures need tending.
The idea of grazing and then planting grasses on top of manure for further grazing is never a good thing.
Cattle drop their manure like chickens, whenever it feels right.
Horses will deposit manure along the fencelines and in the corners. They don't want to eat around their own manure. I have a problem now in fertilizing the inner parts of my pastures. I am considering using buckets full of vegetative compost that leak--we horse owners Always have those, if we didn't throw them away--and letting the spring rains create compost tea. Certainly I could do this with grass, and I will be mowing by early next month.