The traditional way of dealing with all these weeds that grow in the winter is to till and rake, but you may remember I don't till the ground for a variety of reasons. Instead, in February or March (somebody who's on the ball could even do it in the fall after harvest...), I throw a piece of black plastic over the bed.
Then time, sun and heat do their magic, and by the time I am able to plant, I pull back the plastic and it looks like this:
Now please don't get all in a pickle over the fact that it's not the EXACT bed in the before picture above - honestly, they both looked the same, but I needed to plant this bed first, so it is the one in the pictures. You can see in the upper part of the picture, the exact same bed is still covered with plastic- but by the end of the post, it is planted, too.
Anyway, when you pull back the plastic, it does look like this- all dead and ready to be cleaned up. I haul away the old corn stalks I was too lazy to get rid of in November, pull the soaker off to the path, and start raking all the dead weed debris. There may be a few (very few) pernicious weeds (dandelion, thistle) that I also dig by hand.
I rake it all into a pile and haul it away. I haven't timed it, but it doesn't take very long.
Then I add a fresh layer of compost to the bed and rake it smooth. I do this every year to build the soil and I just leave it on top. When I dig the furrows and holes, it gets mixed in some.
I want to emphasize that I have never tilled these beds- and they were pasture with that awful pasture grass when we moved here. The plants have always done well and I rotate the crops so that the corn usually follows the legumes (which fix nitrogen and enriches the soil).
After that preparation, I plant. Since this is a bed for beans (green and dry), cukes and squash, I set up my trellises first, then plant.
I do use an inoculant for the beans. It's supposed to help them fix the nitrogen in the soil. I like the granulated kind you just sprinkle in the furrows versus the powder that needs to be applied to wet bean seeds.
I lay the soaker hose, and in this case have put a piece of fencing over some of my beans to try and deter any birds that might want to find what I've just planted. Watering with the soaker hoses puts the water where I want it- not in the space between plants where weeds want to grow- so it's a major player in keeping weeding to a minimum.
You can see the beds in the upper part of the picture have been prepared too, and will grow the corn for this year. The technique is the same.
This is the part I want to encourage you with: I have very few weeds the entire remainder of the season. Honest! I don't need to cultivate, I never have any problem finding the seedlings because of weeds, and I can leave for a week and not come back to chaos. I pull the occasional weed when I'm out in the garden, and I water and harvest.
Please join my no-till world- you'll love it!
-Jami
This is linked to Works For Me Wednesday.
8 comments: