Gardening Question

dmd77
Fri, 15 Apr 2005 14:44:20 +0000

Speaking as a perennial gardener, I recommend the prepare and use clear plastic method over the newspaper method; I don’t like newspaper because it never quite goes completely away and it’s ugly. And cedar chips, in my experience, are worse than useless; they don’t decay, they don’t prevent weeds, they’re expensive, they don’t add anything to the soil. And Preen is not exactly good for perennials, IMHO (I think Preen may work better in locations other than the places I’ve tried).

I can’t remember where you’re located, but I’ve gardened in four different places (CA, HI, MA, and WA) and my answer on avoiding weeding varies with the place. In HI, lots of people use flamethrowers for weeding, just burn those things out; in CA (bay area, not SF), drip irrigation that’s focussed only on the plants means that weeds are small and easy to pull; in MA, once a week hoeing took care of the problem quickly; in WA, 4 inches of compost and a quick hoeing works wonders.

Do you use a hoe? There are numerous different models, and some do a better job than others.

I should make it clear, as well, that I garden pretty much organically, since I grow a lot of herbs and vegetables mixed in with my flowers, fruit trees, and shrubs. I try to avoid chemicals partly because I don’t want to eat them, but also because I don’t want to breathe them when I spray or put them down–and I don’t want them in my local water table, either. I try not to use plants that are finicky enough to require fungicide or pesticides. I do use Roundup (glyphosate) from time to time; it decomposes rapidly–but I only use it when I need to kill everything in an area (blackberries and nettle, usually).