CONTROLLING WEEDS-
Get rid of as many weeds as you can before you plant your vegetables.
When you prepare your beds or rows, remove all the weeds with fat
roots (the perennial, or long-lived, ones). Pay special attention
to weeds with long sideways roots that connect one plant to another.
Pick out every little bit of them and get them out of the garden
and into the trash. Reduce Potential Weeds:
Even if you can't see a single weed plant, every inch of the soil
in your garden is loaded with weed seeds just waiting for the chance
to grow. Here are three ways to prevent more seeds from coming in
and reduce the number that are there.
- Weed seed patrol: Remove
flowering weeds in or near your garden before they set seed. A
weed-picking walk, once a week or so can pre vent millions of
new seeds from being formed. Be careful not to buy hay for mulch,
as it may be loaded with weed seeds. Use straw instead.
- Stale seedbed: If you've
ever prepared a garden bed you know how fast the surface becomes
a green mat of tiny weeds. But thank goodness weed seeds only
sprout if they are near the surface of the soil. Take advantage
of this! Prepare your planting rows or beds a few weeks before
you need them. When the little weeds are only 12-inch high, use
a rake or tiller to stir their roots out of the soil. Be careful
not to stir more than an inch deep, or you will bring up more
weed seeds. Repeat until few weeds germinate, then plant your
vegetables.
- Soil Solarizing: If the
stale seedbed technique doesn't work, don't plant vegetables.
Try solar izing the soil in midsummer, and plant a fall crop of
cool-season vegetables afterward. Follow these steps:
- -Till the area and rake it smooth.
- -Dig a 3-inch-deep trench all the
way around it.
- -Soak the soil with water.
- -Immediately cover the area-including
the trench-with one continuous sheet of clear plastic.
- -Fill the trench with earth, pulling
the plastic tight as you go.
- -Remove the plastic after 4 to
6 weeks of sunny weather. Use the sun's heat to cleanse or solarize
problem areas of your garden.
Mulch:
Weeds need light to grow. If you cover the soil to keep the light
away, they won't come up. Many gardeners swear by mulches because
they also con serve soil moisture and prevent soil-borne diseases
from splashing onto your plants.
Organic mulches:
Straw (not hay!), shredded leaves, dry grass clippings, corncobs,
seed-free weeds, news papers, and just about any other dry organic
material makes a good mulch and adds organic material to the soil.
Four sheets of newspaper covered with 2 inches of dry grass clippings
makes a good weed-resistant garden mulch. Spread the mulch, then
cut small holes to transplant into or mulch on either side of seed
rows.
Organic mulches keep soil cool, so
use them on cool-season plants or wait until the soil is warm to
put them around warm-season plants. If slugs are a problem, organic
mulches can make them worse consider plastic instead.
Plastic:
Black plastic is a great mulch for heat-loving plants in all but
the warmest climates because it warms the soil and suppresses weeds.
It is also perfect for warming the soil for early planting. Unfortunately,
it only lasts a season or two, and rain can't soak through it. For
the benefits of black plastic without its disadvantages, try a black,
porous landscape fabric instead. Cut holes in either to plant through
or place strips beside rows.
Deep mulch for problem weeds:
If you are fighting a bad case of a stubborn perennial weed such
as thistle, bindweed, or blackberry, you need a heavy-duty mulch.
Give up on gardening for a few seasons and try this. Cover the entire
area with old carpet, layers of heavy cardboard, and/or a sheet
of heavy plastic. Then pile on a foot or so of straw, weeds, or
other mulch and leave it for a year. Pull it up and check for live
roots. If you find any, remove them and repeat the treatment.
Remove or Kill Weeds:
No matter how carefully you prepare and mulch, chances are you will
still have a few weeds. Take care of them before they get the upper
hand while they are still just a few inches high.
Hand pulling:
Your hands are great weed-control tools. Tweak out occasional
weeds as soon as you see them.
Hoeing:
If you have large unmulched areas, you'll need more than your hands.
Get a good hoe, one that cuts on both the push and the pull stroke,
and sharpen it up with a file. This hoe is not for swing ing and
chopping-use it with a gentle push-pull action to undercut the roots
of weeds while they are still small. Sharpen it regularly.
Tilling:
Your tiller can make quick work of small weeds. Set it 1 inch deep
and spin over the area. Larger weeds can be tilled deeper, but you'll
bring up weed seeds at the same time. Caution: If you are fighting
a weed that spreads by long, sideways roots don't till it. You'll
chop it up, and each little bit will grow. Dig such roots up by
hand, or use a deep mulch to smother them.
Flame weeding:
Cook your weeds-no, not in the kitchen-right where they grow. A
hand-held, propane-fueled weeder makes short work of small or large
weeds. Just pass the fame over the weeds (2 or 3 seconds is plenty)
and the cooked weeds shrivel and dry up in a few days. With practice,
you can flame close to your plants without harming them, but you
might want to practice along the fence or in implanted areas first
Organic herbicides:
There are a few non-selective, fatty-acid-based, organic herbicides
available (SharpShooter is one). They kill any living plant they
touch, but may not kill the roots of perennials. These are of limited
use in the vegetable garden. Weed-specifc biocontrols are being
developed that make use of weed-eating bugs or weed diseases. Watch
for them.
CONTROLLING OTHER PROBLEMS-
As a gardener, you will encounter many insects and other small potential
guests. Hand picking or spraying with insecticidal soap or summer
oil will control many garden pests. Floating row covers can keep
plants pest-free. See product labels for directions. Help
for general organic insect control techniques and directions
for controlling 21 common vegetable pests.
To control most animal problems, you
need a fence. A 2-strand electric fence (strands 4 to 6 inches apart
and 18 inches high) is quick to set up and stops all above-ground
animals smaller than deer. To stop burrowing critters, you'll need
to dig a 12-inch-deep (2-foot deep for gophers), and 6-inch-wide
trench and line the bottom and one side with chicken wire. Connect
that chicken wire to an above-ground 3- to 4-foot-tall fence. Leave
the top 1 foot unattached so climbing critters will fall back down
outside, and you'll keep out anything smaller than a deer. Deer
will keep their distance if you add a single-strand electric fence
3 feet outside the mesh fence and 2 feet off the ground.
I HAVE JUST MOVED TO UGANDA, NEAR LAKE ALBERT, AND HAVE BEEN GETTING REQUESTS FROM THE LOCAL TRIBESMAN, AS TO INFORMATION REGARDING DEEP TRENCH GARDENS?
THERE ARE A FEW PROJECTS IN THE AREA THAT REQUIRE FRESH VEGETABLES AND FRUIT, SO THE LOCALS WOULD BE ABLE TO EARN SOME INCOME FROM THESE GARDENS.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A VERY POOR AREA AND ALSO VERY RURAL, SO GETTING ANYTHING HERE IS VERY DIFFICULT.
ANY AND ALL INFORMATION YOU COULD SEND TO ME FOR THEM,WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED BY THE COMMUNITY.
ANXIOUSLLY AWAITING A RESPONSE?
YOURS
KINGSLEY