IsnipU
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Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 1:07 pm
Location: Massachusetts

Preparing Soil for Veggie Garden

My house has a great size vegetable garden, that was here when we bought the house. I have not planted anything for about 2 years, and now it is overgrown with weeds. The sage and strawberries are still growing amongst all the weeds. I want to plant this year. What do I do about all of the weeds. I can't pull them out all by hand, as I have had 2 major surgeries this year already. How can I best get rid of the weeds and prepare the soil for planting? Thanks for your interest in my issue!!!! :D

clutchrider
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Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:45 pm
Location: CT Shoreline

You could do it a few ways. You could kill the weeds with a chemical or cover them to smother them for the season. But both those options would not allow you to do much this season I would think.

I would treat it like sod/grass. Cut up the top layer with the weeds and pull it out and compost or toss it. Then till the leftover soil, toss in some manure, till, throw on a few bags of regular top soil, till again. I did this for my garden last year when I cut out the grass and planted corn. Yielded 8ft. stalks and had a Corn Fest with the family. This year I expanded the garden using the same methods so I am hopeful.

I would personally hack it down with a weedwhacker/brush cutter and then pull off the top layer. It will also go a long way to prevent them from coming back.

Post a pic of the garden in question.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

If you are up to it, what I would do is concentrate on hand weeding around the existing strawberries and sage plants, and then sheet mulch the rest.

hit or miss
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Location: central Kansas

Can you mow it down with a mower? If so, I would do that then smother it with lots of mulch! You can then dig through the mulch to plant your veggies! You may even lay down a layer of cardboard under the mulch to help smother the weeds. Yes, the garden won't be perfect the first year but the benefits next year would be awesome!

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Mow it with the lawn mower then till every day for a week the sun will kill all the grass and weeds if it does not rain.

Put lime in the rows with tomatoes, peppers, squash.

Put peat moss in the row with peppers.



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