....for weeds. I had a 40 hour a week part-time job last season and the weeds won. I've spent the last couple days pulling LOTS of weeds and have left behind LOTS of seeds. Did I mention LOTS of rhizomes? Hope I can use enough mulch to fend off the majority! It's them dang subterraneans that kick my butt!

Dirt

PS Weed pulling party at my house. I'll provide the weeds, you provide the beer. What a deal.

With several feet of snow outside ,I would love the chance to pull weeds,any weeds ,and I'd do it for free.I'd even SUPPLY the beer.I have to get into some dirt soon or I'll go bonkers.Can I apply for the job?
Mavis

My condolences. By last Sept., the weeds won the war at my house too. This year it will be soaker hoses under major mulch galore. My solemn vow this year: more mountain biking, less weed pulling. My heart goes out to you.

I was able to dig a new flower bed this weekend and had loads of bermuda grass, etc. to pull up. It was a major pain, but well worth the effort. Last year's beds were relatively weed free for the whole season, so feel good about the effort now. I pretty much just went through every shovel-full of soil by hand, breaking it apart and removing the weeds (mostly bermuda grass) roots and all. I've also had fun looking up what I'm killing at this website:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/weeds_common.html

It's been fun noticing a lot of these plants in the area here in California. I'm sure many of them are all over the country.

It rained so much today, I'll have to wait a little while to get back out there and dirty. I can hardly wait.

i htink i've got a really good handle on my weeds. newspaper mulch, very thick. then thick woodchip mulch on that! kept 4000+ sq ft pretty clear. working on clearing some more now.

After the party at Dirt's you all come to my place and we'll do it all over again--I'll get a keg or two.

Allmuxedup: How "thick" do you do your newspaper mulch? I've got lots and lots of that stuff. Would appreciate it if you would describe exactly what you do. Mine seems to last a long time even though it is very moist and maybe that is ok. Michelle

One thing I know about using newspapers is that you should only use the B&W pages, and never any with colored ink if you don't want nasty chemicals leaching into your soil. It takes some time to separate them, but if you do it after you read the paper in the morning, you have a great collection ready to go when you need it. I have used layers 6 pages thick in my garden, and would recommend overlapping the seams by about 6" since the weeds can find their way through any little crack you give them.

I guess you've all read Ruth Stouts book,"how to have a beautiful garden without an aching back" or some such title. Since I find it impossible to stick with any task for more than a few minutes, her book was a Godsend! Of course it helps if you are high,but pot is illegal and Ritalin is habit forming, so Ms. Stouts techniques have been the key to what little gardening I have been able to do over the years.
Won't it be nice when they legalize pot here in the USA and then all we people with Attention Deficit Disorder can combine two of our favourite activities and produce food at the same time? It will be enough to make one turn vegetarian!
David Chisholm

As for newspaper mulch, I have used whole sections--which can be up to 12 pages thick if it's unfolded, double that if not. In the potato patch I leave them folded in half. Much less likely to blow away.

I live in a cohousing community with a "Shared Community Garden" which I am teh overseer for. Last year was our first stab at this and very few of the pledged work hours actually were worked and weeds did become a problem. Our main weed problem is what we call quack grass, which spreads by shallow rizome,sp?,roots and will travel 4 feet under cardboard and heavy mulch. As we make our raised beds, my husband actually sifts all the dirt to remove as much of the root as possible, even a tiny bit will regrow. We find we have to occasionally lift the cardboard and weed under it to keep it from invading the beds.

I had this same problem with bindweed in my gardens--I used plastic mulch (which I won't use again--what a pain!) and although it suppressed the bindweed somewhat--it still crawled through the planting holes and up the stems of my veggie plants, and even sprouted around the edges and crawled across the TOP of the plastic!

I've heard (from this site, in fact) many ways to control/eradicate it, and am trying them all--one or two every season. Annual ryegrass as a groundcover/green manure was helpful last year. Haven't tried the vinegar solution yet--but I'd like to hear if anyone knows what this is, and how exactly to go about it.

Come on down. I just planted 20 bare-root trees yesterday, and I've got about 20 more to go. By Sunday. I was soooo tired after all that toting and digging. Guess it's good for those deep-fried indiscretions I keep committing.... (Sorry Subway! m