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| I have been fighting weeds in my garden bed for 8 years now. I broke the ground from grass, and have the composition exactly as I need it. However, every year .... weeds, bermuda grass, and more weeds. The first year ... I smothered the entire garden with wood chips from a local tree service. It took a total of 8 loads for my 50' x 60' plot, and I poured on the nitrogen. 2nd year ... I let it rest and added 2 dump trucks of composted horse manure. 3rd year .... I mixed everything in really well, and now ... for the past 6 years I've had nothing but weeds and bermuda that will never go away! Should I resort to raised beds with a thick wood chip base? |
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| I'm not sure on this but I think horse manure has more seeds that germinate then cow manure, You could try spaying roundup on it about 4-5 weeks before planting or lay black plastic down or mulch with straw. |
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- Posted by theforgottenone1013 5b/6a MI (My Page) on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 21:11
| I think perhaps the "composted horse manure" wasn't as composted as it should have been. Either that or the composting process never heated up enough to kill the weed seeds. You'll never get rid of all the weeds anyway so I'd just keep going at it as you are. Using thick mulch will help and hoeing them off as seedlings works great. Rodney |
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| and then you never, ever mix. mixing brings up seeds from below. but I do get beds out of control. then it is time for cardboard plus mulch, punch small holes through the cardboard, plant seedlings. |
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| The saying goes like this...Let it seed 1 year and weed 7 years. |
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- Posted by Slimy_Okra 2b (My Page) on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 23:41
| I agree with glib - mixing is probably what did you in. Those weed seeds can stay viable for a very long time. Another mulch option for warm-season crops is black plastic. |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 3:30
| I had a vegetable garden overrun with witch grass once. I didn't know what it was at the time and used a rototiller on it. Big mistake. Made it much worse. It got to the point that I gave up on the garden for two years. Then after research, I decided to use a large piece of clear plastic leftover from an ice rink we had n the yard, and covered the entire area that was about 25x25 feet, with the plastic, weighed it down with bricks and left it there for a whole year. It worked great. We were able to reclaim that area and I got rid of about 90% of the witch grass. I don't know anything about bermuda grass, but I'd research ways of getting rid of that. I can't see using a chemical to get rid of it, in a 50x60ft area where you are going to grow food. If you can't do that, I would think thick cardboard with heavy mulch would be your next best bet. And it will improve the soil and increase your earthworms. |
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| Welcome to the site! Where are you located? What types of crops are you having problems with? How large of a bed are we talking about? Cultivating twice with at least a few days inbetween helps me quite a bit - before seeding or transplanting. Also, keep track of what is growing in the garden year-round (not just at planting time). Many of the conditions that vegetables like encourage weeds. How often do you weed the bed? Best of luck! edit- I now see the 50x60 plot size -should be large enough to see some results from all of your effort. |
This post was edited by cheapheap on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 5:09
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| Last year's continuous rain really set me back because I couldn't keep up with the quickweed (galinsoga), and the "seed rain" that came from outside the garden was probably huge. But my problems are small compared to Bermuda grass, which I dealt with in another garden. Raised beds will just introduce more frustration because the runners will hunker down in the corners. Your best bet is to install a permanent perimeter around the garden using heavy duty geotextile fabric covered with wood chips. You'll have to clean out the grass and renew it every winter when the grass is dormant, but it does work. |
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