Mulching now as weed control worth it?

[sugarworm]

I honestly forgot completely about my garden, well not entirely, I dug up some potatoes, carrots and onions from time to time which makes this a bit more embarrassing. I swore that I'd get to mulching the life out of those darned weeds that popped up and always put it off over and over again Is it too late to mulch for weed suppression or should I stock up on aspirin for weeding back pains?

[imafan26]

I'd do both. It is better to get what weeds you can get out first, then mulch otherwise, you will get suppression but depending on the type of weed, some of them will still break through.

If the weeds you have are not the perennial kind and if they haven't gone to seed, you are so lucky.

[rainbowgardener]

Agree, never too late to mulch, which is good for your soil and plants and conserves water as well. But unless you are going to lay down something like cardboard first and then mulch on top of that, you probably need to weed first and then mulch, which at least keeps you from having to weed over and over again.

[Bobberman]

I will mulch alot this year especially in one garden where there are tons of weeds that take over in july! Leaves& straw is what I plan on using mostly! You can.t beat mulch which also increases the worm count which means alot!

[Gary350]

In Arizona they mulch yards with 3" of gravel to keep out weeds and grass. It works great.

Best thing for the garden till overy day for 2 weeks it kills everything.

[rainbowgardener]

everyone has to figure out what works for them.

3" of gravel suppresses weeds and grass, but does nothing for your soil and is a pain to work around, for planting things, etc. Over time the gravel will spread everywhere.

Tilling your soil repeatedly will indeed kill EVERYTHING. It is very destructive to the fungal/ microbial life of the soil as well as the earthworms and other small invertebrates, the texture and tilth and structure of the soil, the moisture holding capacity. It beats the oxygen out of it, leaves it vulnerable to erosion, etc. https://www.plantea.com/no-tilling.htm Even farmers are going more and more to no-till methods.

You are the one who always complains that no amount of truckloads of compost and whatever is enough ....

[Gary350]

[quote="rainbowgardener"]everyone has to figure out what works for them.
Even farmers are going more and more to no-till methods.
quote]

Farmers do the no till method to save time and money. I have 2 cousins that share crop 2000 acres of land each. The no till method means 1 time over the land and the crop is planted. The old method required you plow the land first, then disc, then plant. 3 times over the land means 3 times for fuel, 3 times more wear and tear on equipment, 3 times more labor, tractor tires compact the soil 3 times. Now they use a 14 row chizzle plow followed by a 14 row planter. Now the same work can be done in 1/3 the time with 1/3 the fuel.

Here is my cousin Joe Carter, big time farmer in Fairlield Illinois. He also has Carter trucking company out of Fairfield Ill. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 2367_n.jpg

[rainbowgardener]

You don't seem to believe anyone about the importance of soil microbiology, etc. I wonder if you have ever thought about testing it out? Just save out one bed/ plot to do all organic/ no till/ all compost and mulch and compare results. It takes awhile to build up the life of the soil, so the first year might not show much. I betting if you were willing to continue the test for two or three years, the organic, mulched, composted, not tilled bed would start showing an advantage, especially in hot dry AZ (keeping the soil tilth conserves moisture). At worst you could come back and say see, I told you so, it didn't help.

[Gary350]

You do not have to till deep to kill weeds and grass. Just skim the surface. You cut the plant from the roots the plant dies. Plus there is a big advantage to just skimming the surface the top 1" of dry dirt becomes insulation and holds the moisture into the soil, it works like mulch. Spring time lots of plants are trying to come up so skim the surface every day with the tiller to slice the new plant from the roots they all die. Then in a couple of weeks the weather will be warmer and more suited for planting seeds. The soil needs to warmed up ot 65 degrees before you plant or the seeds will not sprout.

I know what your saying about organic material. The city has a big vacuum cleaner truck that sucks leafs up from the street. I use to get 5 to 7 of those dumped on my garden every falls. Buy spring 3 ft of leafs had composted down to 1 ft of nice compost. I tilled that into the soil every spring for 15 years it worked great. But now that everyone puts poison on their yard to kill grass and weeds I know that poison is in the tree leaves too so I don't get leaves anymore. I don't want any toxic stuff in my garden, If in dought do with out.

Farmers have no choice where do you get enough compost for a 2000 acre field.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Farmers have no choice where do you get enough compost for a 2000 acre field.

They are called green manure cover crops.

Eric

[tomf]

Skimming is a good way but, not all weeds die when cut, some weeds like thistles will grow from the cut roots. Try putting down news papers or cardboard to kill the weeds.

[MObeek]

Have you seen this movie yet? His results are very impressive. I intend to copy him this year.

https://backtoedenfilm.com/

[Northernfox]

MO: what kind of wood would work? something like Poplar or Pine?

[MObeek]

Northernfox: Paul Gautschi said you can use any tree except eucalyptus. So poplar and pine should work.

[Northernfox]

Thank you. at work we are twinning a highway. I may be able to snatch up some mulch from the clearing phase.