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I have three 4ftX4ft box gardens, and a compost bin. Is there anything I should do with them in the fall to prepare for next year?
Also, I am going to clear some ground to plant more tomatoes next year. What should I do to prepare for that? I've heard it's good to use Preen to keep the weeds out. Should I spread the Preen this fall, or next spring?
In early Nov we will dig up the sweet pots and probably use grass killer on some of the garden, the part that is so filled with new grass (weeds to most of us) the rest we will leave alone. I will make sure all the old garden is pulled up and dumped in the forest. Then we will wait until early spring (about the first of March) I will put down the cardboard where it will be needed, add fresh top soil turn the dirt and put down some mulch plus the compost mixture. Then it is wait until the 2nd week of Arpil and plant again.
It sounds like you have square ft beds, go to their web site and see what they say about adding
compost ect to the garden boxes..If it were me I would be adding good compost.
Forget the weed killer because that could be absorbed into any root plants aka carrots, radishes
that you plant next year.
Just not a fan of any weed killer..A Hori-Hori knife will get them quicker and no damage to the soil.
Look this tool and buy one at your local garden center..they are the best tool there is for weeding..
Well thats my 2 cents worth
good luck
It sounds like you have square ft beds, go to their web site and see what they say about adding
compost ect to the garden boxes..If it were me I would be adding good compost.
Forget the weed killer because that could be absorbed into any root plants aka carrots, radishes
that you plant next year.
Just not a fan of any weed killer..A Hori-Hori knife will get them quicker and no damage to the soil.
Look this tool and buy one at your local garden center..they are the best tool there is for weeding..
Well thats my 2 cents worth
good luck
I am not worried about the weed killer because we will be doing 2 things: 1- puttint plastic and/or cardboard down for spring planting and we don't usually do the carrot, radish, etc stuff. It is too cold to work the garden until Apr or late Mar and by then we can start thinking summer veggies. We might do a few early things...
I have a veggie bed in the front that I created last Fall/Winter. I just threw some dirt on the ground from other places I had "excavated" and put several big sheets of cardboard on top. I used a variety of methods to make my flower beds...one method was to pull up the sod. I found out putting a lot of sod under my trees was a bad idea..but the sod is good for a "raised" area for a garden if you let it decompose...
I ordered a lot of furniture for my new house, so I had a lot of boxes. I layered the sheets of cardboard and overlapped them. I think I may have dumped some of my cornucopia of fall leaves on the top of the pile, as well.
In Spring, I just moved the cardboard and planted my seeds. I planted zucchini, winter squash, pole beans etc there. I also planted some marigolds to deter pests. Wasn't bad. I got a lot of beans, and while I did have to weed occasionally...I didn't use any chemicals. Just sayin'.
I created flowerbeds in the backyard by just piling all my Autumn leaves into the areas where I wanted the beds. I put down tons of leaves...and they killed all of the grass and weeds. Well, I don't consider violets weeds...to be honest it didn't' kill those, but I love them. I have a lot of trees, and the heavy wet piles of leaves did a great job. I think it may work for a vegetable garden.
BTW I loved the following video of a woman who turned her ENTIRE suburban front yard into a vegetable garden. Personally, I think it is not the best idea, because perennials, shrubs and trees are a great way to prevent soil erosion into our streams and waterways...but she has a good "experimental" way of creating the beds and an entire 3 or so awesome videos:
Some of those grass killers are some very strong stuff, not sure i'd feel comfortable about eating produce grown from an area that has been treated with the stuff.
However doing a bit of research comes up with many home made vinegar based products that i might give a try as the amount of weeds growing in my vegetable garden is getting me in the primary stages of loosing interest in vegetable gardening..
Some of those grass killers are some very strong stuff, not sure i'd feel comfortable about eating produce grown from an area that has been treated with the stuff.
However doing a bit of research comes up with many home made vinegar based products that i might give a try as the amount of weeds growing in my vegetable garden is getting me in the primary stages of loosing interest in vegetable gardening..
I'm so sorry to hear that! Wow either my tolerance for weeds is high or I'm doing something differently.
1. No matter how you kill weeds, even if you put weed kill or vinegar down now..a lot of weeds grow from seeds and will come back.
2. A Great tip for reducing weeds is: in Spring, till up the bed at night. I got this from my Barnes and Noble gardening book. It was scientifically proven that you'll get fewer of the weeds that reproduce by seed. Tilling also breaks up the roots of the perennial weeds. Try it.
3. Mulch - I put pine bark mulch on one of my beds, and it helped with weeds. I did this after the veggies were big enough. Weeds are a given in gardening and you'll have to weed at least once a week IMO...but the mulch seemed to stifle quite a few of them.
4. Cover - You can also try covering down the garden area with thick layers of cardboard (as I did) or plastic. My mom swears by plastic and she has an awesome and productive organic garden. She uses "solarization" to kill weeds and insect larvae. YOu cover the beds when they're not in production. I believe "real" farmers use cover crops like clover...I haven't tried, but it supposedly works as well. Before you plant you remove the "cover" and till. IN the case of clover, you till it into the soil.
5. Kill weeds dead. You should pull up the entire plant, including roots. Also, do not give weed plants a chance to flower. After they flower...they will produce seeds even when they're DEAD. Believe me, it is a known fact and I've seen it myself. Pull up the weeds by the roots and discard the entire plant (I actually mulch them LOL could be a mistake...but in a HOT mulch pile, supposedly the seeds will decompose). Over time, you should hopefully see fewer weeds.
My plot is 20'X20', i'm thinking of covering the entire area with black plastic and poking holes in it where i want to plant something..
My main problem is i'm at an age where bending down to deal with the infestation of thousands of small weeds is no longer possible so its hours of work with a hoe several times a week or hit the weeds with the weed whacker..
My plot is 20'X20', i'm thinking of covering the entire area with black plastic and poking holes in it where i want to plant something..
My main problem is i'm at an age where bending down to deal with the infestation of thousands of small weeds is no longer possible so its hours of work with a hoe several times a week or hit the weeds with the weed whacker..
Ohhh. Somebody else on the forum posted a picture of a similar setup...Maybe he/she will post how it worked.
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