Lots of children. I'm serious. Within 30 miles of where I live, there are large Mennonite communities, and I always see the children out in the garden with their parents. The kids are on all 4's picking weeds, while the parents attend to the crops.
Though like you said, lots of them probably spray. My uncle has a garden, probably about 50' x 75' and he tells me it's a lost cause for him trying to keep the weeds out.

Lots of children. I'm serious. Within 30 miles of where I live, there are large Mennonite communities, and I always see the children out in the garden with their parents. The kids are on all 4's picking weeds, while the parents attend to the crops.
Though like you said, lots of them probably spray. My uncle has a garden, probably about 50' x 75' and he tells me it's a lost cause for him trying to keep the weeds out.

Lots of children. I'm serious. Within 30 miles of where I live, there are large Mennonite communities, and I always see the children out in the garden with their parents. The kids are on all 4's picking weeds, while the parents attend to the crops.
Though like you said, lots of them probably spray. My uncle has a garden, probably about 50' x 75' and he tells me it's a lost cause for him trying to keep the weeds out.

Lynxville,

This is how I maintain my 25 x 30 foot veggie garden.

I have been using "no till" "weed free" gardening methods for several years now. When I first started gardening where we live now I had a very small garden spot (10 x 15 i guess).

Over the next two seasons the garden spot grew exponentially.

When it got to its current size I had to figure out a way to get ahead of the work and find ways to minimize the effort and time I had to put into maintenance. That is when I discovered "weed free".

First, I planned the entire site out on graph paper. I brought the tiller in and dug up the whole site. I then laid out my borders, my planting beds, and my pathways. I built 4x8 raised beds with two foot paths and added a picket fence all the way around.

I covered the paths with 6 or 8 layers of newspaper which I wet down and covered with an eight inch layer of hay.

In the garden beds I added manure, compost, and dry leaves. I covered all of that organic material with a 6 inch layer of wheat straw.

When planting time comes I simply pull back the straw and put the plants or seeds into the ground without disturbing the surrounding mulch or soil.

In the Spring I add more manure and wheat straw to the beds without bothering what is there already.

In the Fall I top off the beds with leaves or straw or whatever. Sometimes manure too.

The secret to it is not to dig. The only time I dig is when I dig up the potatoes.

If I see a spot in a pathway that is getting bare then I just add more paper and hay. I do the same thing with my beds.

Yes, I have the occasional weed which sticks its head through but they are few and far between and easily pulled out when I am out harvesting or piddling.

I use Round Up spray only around the outside borders of the garden to keep the grass and weeds out of the fence line.

It takes some work to convert over but once you make the conversion it is really so much easier to do than the traditional way.

Good Gardening!

Aubrey

Wow, nows thats what I call using your head. My garden is virtually the same with the raised beds and fence around but I hadn't thought of the wheat straw. I am going to give your idea a try next year, God willing.

Get A copy of Pat Lanza's "Lasagna Gardening". My secret is ,er, what she said!

Wheat straw can be expensive. Use what you have. I use ALL paper products (cereal boxes, cream cheese boxes, what have you...) as mulch and cover with leaves, straw or grass clippings. The worms love it and it keeps down the weeds. Never let soil be uncovered or the weeds will start. You have to pull away the mulch from seedlings and put eggshells around them to impale the snails.

As far as farmers go with the big fields, I'm guessing here that they do use chemicals. After planting the seeds and they have sprouted they use a pre-emerge. I use it often on the job. trudyjean

I have a 35'x4' flower bed which butts up against one side of the barn. When I don't weed for a couple of months, it takes an entire day to get the job done. I like to pull them root and all by getting under the root with a spade, otherwise they come right back. If I take a small hand hoe, get on my knees, and disturb the weeds before they get taller than one inch, it takes a half an hour or so. I'm not one to be vigilant about pulling weeds, but I'm convinced that if I would be disciplined enough to get them when they're small, it would take me no longer than an evening or half of a weekend day to weed all of the flower and veg. garden beds, which are many on my property.

Having said that, I am trying to establish the deep mulch method also, at least in my vegetable garden beds. But where to find the mulch? I often wonder where the practitioners of this method get their mulch. Wheat straw is expensive around here, and gathering the grass clippings and leaves is a lot of work for the amount of veg. beds I have. God bless Ruth Stoutt, but she should have also written a book on how to find the mulch materials.

I don't mind what some others call weeds -

Especially on my long veggie mounds over winter. It's daunting when you first look at it - but an area at a time is really workable for pulling and tossing the guys aside.

Last year's tilled soil is loose and remains bioactive - I wouldn't think about letting it get compacted under heavy rains and killing all that bioactivity with heavy Plastics.

Instead, soil is held in place by a variety of opportunistic common volunteers, ok - Weeds -
which pull up easily the following season,
and which - in turn - easily prepares that spot for planting seedlings or bulbs in the same session without spading. Weeds out, onions in. Just follow the planting later with a mulch of fresh nutritious compost, and add straw or other material as needed for the type of plant and climate.

I see a casual winter ground cover as a valuable and free green Manure. Pulled weeds go on compost piles, and they get buried (so seeds don't throw) with alternated layers of kitchen materials or leaves. btw, I gather a stockpile of leaves in fall to use year round in compost - the brown leafy layer tossed over kitchen scraps each time prevents unwanted bugs and smells. Cooking gets going quicker with a spade of dirt and moisture (kitchen greywater) added.

Other people's cast-off Leaves are also used all winter in my garden as a soft mulch in flower beds - which prevents weed growth, and gets perennials & bulbs thru most ice storms just fine. It's so easy to pull this mulch back in spring to reveal neat beds with emerging perennials!

Here's a simple thing that might shock someone.
I allow clumps of clover to grow almost everywhere -
to feed the soil with nitrogen. In a grassy lawn, you get a bonus. In drought the clover stays green - as does all grass growing immediately around it! Old fashioned lawns were less fussy, and included sweet clover. This type of lawn remains mostly lush green in the hottest part of summer without fuss. Just don't walk barefoot when clover is flowering - or you could get stung! Flowering clover attacts pollinators and other beneficial insects - so, c'mon, give the weed a break - it's our friend.

There's MORE! While we're thinking clovers -
I love the Wood Sorrel for it's verdant lushness
and yellow flowers. The red clover is great for foliage contrast in the flower garden.

Some _weeds_ are edible and great addition to salads -
so I keep a few of those growing (like Purslane and Amaranth) for that purpose.

A confession -
I don't like managing dandelions tubers much at all.
Nor Canada Thistle, or Dock. These do not fit my criterea for fun co-existance. Git 'em out while they are young!

(Anybody else wanna testify?)

My home has a very large garden in the backyard. We moved in last summer, so this will be my first year in the garden. I know there's an asparagus bed and some strawberries. The entire area is cover with wild strawberries and weeds. Should I roto-til the entire area, less the AB? What are your thoughts on adding mushroom soil? I'm new to this and appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

Elizabeth

Weeds are nature's way of showing us what's in our soil. There are a couple of good books on the subject from Acres USA. Check out the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weed Control Books

We live in a small town that has plenty of rabbits that mark the calendar for the day my gardening activity starts. At first I used to try to keep the garden weed free. It didn't take long to realize that when I did the only thing for the rabbits to eat was what ever I had set out. I found that by leaving the weeds alone, especially early on, the rabbits often left my plants alone and ate the weeds. A win win situation really. I keep the area right around the seedlings weed free but the aisles are free to grow. When my plants are well established and there is plenty of other local fare for the furry ones I just cut down the weeds before they flower and leave them in the aisles to break down and help keep other weeds from coming up. Not the prettiest of gardens but chemical free and less labor required.

Hey, Ruth did--she said "use whatever you can find, she begged, borrowed, whatever, spoiled hay from farmers, used weeds she pulled up, leaves, grass trimmings, anything.i do the same, have for 20 years, the only weeds in my garden are those i choose to have, strangely enough, i leave one called "pig weed", cause the bugs shred it--and leave my plants alone.i have every ruth stout book i can find, amazing how she was so far ahead of the times, wouldnt she love access to a computer? material being hard to find probably depends on the area you're in.

It was fun reading about how you all mulch. I do the same thing--save every rottable scrap from butter boxes to newspaper to the weeds I pull and use it for mulch. My very favorite mulch is shredded paper. I put down a layer or two of newspaper and spread the shredded paper over it. No weeds have ever grown through it. Poeple think I'm crazy for using so many different things for mulch, but they all work!
I deliberately save some weeds too, just because I like to eat them...purslane, lambs quarters, and my very favorite, dandelions. There is nothing like a dandelion greens salad early in the spring long before anything else has started to grow.

Elizabeth, start small and work your way up. I've just moved to a house with a yard covered in couch grass and various lawn weeds. I've dug a few beds and created some raised beds on a mat of newspaper. Later, when it warms up (it's still winter here), I'll start planting things in the lawn to smother the grass or at least give it a run for its money. I'll use indigenous ground covers that spread to form a low, dense mat without taking root every where.

I have a 100' X 15' vegetable garden in my backyard. To eliminate weeds from my garden, I bought 2 or 3 big rolls of landscapers fabric. In the spring, I till the soil, then I lay the fabric over the entire garden. I place medium sized rocks on the fabric to hold it in place. When I am ready to plant, I cut holes into the fabric and plant seedlings into the holes. The plants grow and I never have to deal with weeds.