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Weed control in garden
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Posted by heat90 PA (My Page) on Sun, Mar 11, 07 at 16:55
What do you use to keep the weeds down? Grass clippings? Plastic? Thanks!
Heather |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Weed control in garden
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| Pull them out, root and all, as soon as they appear in your garden. Beyond that I use newspaper and mulch. I put a several page thickness surounding my perennials (or cover the entire area for annuals), soak it well with a hose then cover with mulch. For annuals, scrape the mulch aside, dig a small hole through the newspaper when it is moist/wet, then plant the annual and replace the mulch. Alexa |
RE: Weed control in garden
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Hmmm interesting on the newspaper.....can I ask what this does under the mulch? How long does it last? My hubby thinks I need to grow a big enough garden for 50 people to eat out of and I cannot keep up w/ it....:(
Heather |
RE: Weed control in garden
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| We use the newspaper under hardwood mulch or pine bark mulch. It works great. Moisture goes through it and it helps keep germinating plants from getting through the mulch if coming up or the roots from reaching the soil if it is going down. Then when the mulch and newspaper rot they just become part of the soil. Avoid colored sections of the newspaper. They may have heavy metal inks which are toxic. |
RE: Weed control in garden
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Great! Do you know how long it takes for the paper to break down? Our township offers free mulch but we are concerned if it has any chemicals in it. Do you find that this works alot better than layers of grass clippings? Thanks again!
Heather |
RE: Weed control in garden
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| What are they calling mulch? Mulch should be chopped up woody plants or Christmas trees. The only problem is if it contains chopped up walnut branches. Walnut branches contain a toxin that kills many plants. If it is leaves, it is not mulch, but a compost. Again, walnut leaves can be a problem. We dug holes for new plants several years after using newspaper and it was still there. It behaved like a wet newspayer behaves, but it was doing its job. I guess part of its job is shade. I helps keep seed from germinating. Also it helps keep the mulch from rotting. It also keeps then nitrogen in the soil away from the mulch preventing rotting. A friend with a high temperature burner says that the white ash in newspaper is actually clay. So newspaper actually forms a thin layer of clay between the mulch and the soil. |
RE: Weed control in garden
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| How many inches of mulch do you all use? Is more, well, more? Or is there a law of diminishing return, or worse is there harm inherent to too much mulch? Has anyone ever tried using brown paper bags or cardboard as an underlayer for cedar mulch? I always use landscape plastic, which I eventually pull free, leaving just the mulch after my plants have grown large enough to shade the area and prevent weeds. But I am willing to try something more biodegradable. The notion of a layer of clay between my mulch and soil, created by newspaper is rather offputting, though. Plus what kind of ink is used in newspapers, generally? Could it be toxic? I am interested in your thoughts. |
RE: Weed control in garden
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| 2 inches of mulch is ideal for landscaping; no more than 2.5". Do not let it touch the stems of plants in the winter. It will lead to vole damage. Clay is what soil is made of. My point is that after the organic components of paper decay, the inorganic component, clay, is left. Color inks can be toxic. It is safest to avoid color sections. |
RE: Weed control in garden
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The majority of newsprint is made from soybean.
I use newspaper and grass clippings. It will last almost two month,depending on the plant type. If you are growing leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, brocolli and such it will last. Using wood chips as mulch will use up the nitrogen during decomposition. Dandelions I remove with a deep narrow blade shovel or a pitchfork, getting as much of the root as possible. The soil is made up of sand, loam, and clay. By adding compost or organic matter you increase the microrganism it the soil. If you place some of your soil in a jar with distilled water and shake the jar vigorously and then set aside for it to settle, you can determine the the composition ratio of your soil. Clay is the heavious,then sand and finally loam. You can use a litmus test to determine it's PH. |
RE: Weed control in garden
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| Rotting wood does use nitrogen. But the mulch sitting on top of the newspaper rots very very slowly and the loss of nitrogen is not noticeable. I have a friend in Lenhartsville that uses wood dust from a nearby wood processing plant to mulch all his rhododendron seedlings and cuttings. He has absolutely no problem and he doesn't use newspaper. If you mix the wood chips or dust in with the soil, then you loose nitrogen big time, but sitting on top, the loss is barely noticeable, and many times not noticeably. Everyone spreads the story about mulch, but as long as the mulch is on top of the soil, there is no problem. |
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