I spent a total of 8 miserable, hot hours pulling weeds from the garden. Still have 1 row to go and cultivate. Yes it should of been done at least 3 weeks ago. It gave me a lot of time to think. My idea would be to cultivate and comeback in 2 to 3 weeks and spray between the rows with Round Up. I have a long box with 1 ft. sides that a car jack came in. The plan would be to cut the bottom out and place it between the rows to contain the spray. Good idea or not? Will cultivating between the rows just chop up the roots I didn't get out and cause more problems? Where the garden is, it use to be a pasture. I didn't do anything to the ground except to till it up. I have a lot of weeds. Looking towards the future and weed reduction.
I'd be worried about hurting the wanted plants. I would suggest using a "mulch" You can use news paper(my dad's method) to smother weeds. I also use sawdust from my sawmill or my favorite wood chips from the planner. Depending on the soil you can rake it off in the fall or till it under.
+1 on the news paper. I haven't done it but my older neighbor swears by it. He covers the news paper with grass clippings to hold it down. At the end of the season he tills it all in.
I have heard of the newspaper and I do need get some organic stuff on the garden to break up the clay. I will have to start collecting them. I have a good bit of saw dust in my log cutting area. I will start taking it out to the garden instead of just letting it lay. I only used 2/3 of what I worked up this year. I think next year I will space the rows 5 foot apart. That way I could just take my 42" tiller attachment between the rows.
http://www.weedkillerlawsuit.com June 2017 - California Environmental Protection Agency first U.S. agency to declare glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, as a known human carcinogen under the state's Proposition 65.
No, California, Roundup won't give you cancer [Glyphosate] is in the same cancer-causing category as dental implants, consuming red meat, being a barber, and doing work that disrupts your biological clock. Read.. learn, make an informed decision...
It's tough working clay, I take everything huge leaf piles grass our non-meat food scraps and make a huge compost pile. A few yards of sand goes a long way. Some say non broken down organics can Rob nitrogen, but in clay soil where I can literally make pottery anything helps!
Was thinking about adding sand this fall. I loaded the weeds in the bucket of my skid steer and dumped them in a large pile. I can easily take the manure forks and turn it every so often. I need to empty out the pantry of some very old canned goods. Onto my pile? You said no meat products. What about dumping pickled products on the pile? Does the acid content matter? I am going to need the jars and most of what I am looking at was canned over 5 years ago.
I would do it, not sure about the acid. I wouldn't worry. My only concern is attracting unwanted critters. Maybe burry it under other compost. I have 5 gal bucket that I empty my small house container in. By the time the bucket is full nothing bothers it when it goes on the pile.(bucket of ooze) They have large compost tumblers. But it's to fancy for me. Amazon.com : Lifetime 60028 65-Gallon Compost Tumbler : Composting Bins : Patio, Lawn & Garden
Way to fancy for me also. Not real worried about the critters. Maybe they will leave some droppings to help me out. Pile is 300 yards from the house. 5 gal bucket. I remember when my son decided he was going to raise some hogs and bought 6 of them. We had bucket on the back porch that all the table scraps and old refrigerator produce went into. The bucket contents would be fed to the hogs.
I have a fairly manageable garden that I can keep ahead of the weeds but I have used Preen a few times to slow the weeds and it works fairly well.
I've used roundup in the garden. I didn't even use a spray shield like your box. Keep the spray wand as low as possible, and dont pump the pressure any more than needed to minimize overspray. I didn't lose a single plant. As far as the cultivating goes, any time you disturb dirt, you bring new seeds to the top allowing them to germinate.
You can make own decision about the safety of Round Up-as far as applying it, just hold the nozzle close to the weed and let it "dribble" on. I have done numerous times when my fiancé gets behind weeding her flowers-haven't lost one yet.
If your garden weeding has gotten out of hand, try using a weed wacker to keep the weeds down. You can do this over and over or lay mulch down on top you the areas you trimmed down. I used a weed and feed product on the lawn, six years later, I tilled it up and planted a garden. All the vegetables grew well except for the tomatoes. they were all deformed. I had the extension service involved. they said it was herbicide that did the deformities. I dug one up and washed the roots off, replanted in commercial soil. after 6 weeks, the plant resumed normal growth.
If round up doesn't scare you then by all means buy some of the stuff that Home Depot is advertising now that is flower and plant safe. Were it me I would start by going to appliance stores and getting card board boxes they come in. Cut them to fit between the rows and let them break down so I can till them in come fall. But I don't mess with that kind of garden any longer. I have went to the raised beds, Tomatoes 8 in a 4'x8' bed grew 7 feet tall before I learned to prune them. I put my sets in the ground and water them in with some liquid plant food, wait two day then sprinkle on the preen water it good then work it into the soil. Amazing squash and egg plants along with peppers in another bed. I grow so much stuff We can can and freeze it and still give several truck loads of stuff away. Al
