new rental...need to kill weeds but I don't want to hurt garden/animal
Z Man
5 years ago
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Hutchae84 Zone 8b/PNW
5 years agoRelated Discussions
killing weeds and grass in the garden
Comments (11)I agree with Al. Last spring I helped my sister install a new flowerbed. I was only there for three days so we had to work fast. We tilled up the bed right out of her lawn and worked in some manure. We then covered the entire area with ten sheets thickness of newspaper. We cut small holes in the newspaper to plant the bedding plants in. I spoke with her last night and she said the plants have done great and the grass has not been a problem. You can plant your bulbs in the same way. By the time they start coming up, the newspaper will have softened and be rotting enough for them to break their own way through. (Don't use newspaper with colored, slick ink. It takes way too long to break down, if it ever does.)...See MoreDon't want to hurt my new neighbor's bees
Comments (1)First page, Enviromental Hazards, first 2 sentances. Here is a link that might be useful: Conserve SC label....See MoreI don't want to . . .
Comments (15)I don't want to... ...sit in my office, at my computer, slaving for someone else, when I could be at home in my backyard creating my own personal masterpiece. ...ignore my yard yet another weekend while I trot off to take care of a compulsory visit to a family member. Don't they know I'd rather be toiling in my backyard on my masterpiece!?!?! ...deal with the wasps and spiders while I try to move that gigantic white bird of paradise that I planted too close to the house. ...smell my neighbor's stinky cigar when I sit in the hammock on my back porch after I have just spent a very long hot labor intensive day in my yard. ...stop talking to the lizards, toads, dragonflies and snakes as I work in the yard just because the neighbors are watching me. ...see the rats running through the overgrown yard next door toward the abandoned, soon to be foreclosure, house next to mine. ...remove all those stupid rocks that someone put in the flower bed inside my pool enclosure. Didn't they know the rocks would just sink into the dirt and create a hell of a mess? ...deal with that impossible to kill wheat stalk looking grass that grows up through my boxwood hedge. ...see that golden rain tree flourishing in my neighbor's yard because I know that means one million more times I will have to bend over and pluck a volunteer from my yard. ...fix that !@)(%*^#%!+ sprinkler head next to my driveway that EVERYONE seems to drive over, over and over and over and over....See MoreI really don't want to use chemicals but.....
Comments (10)Thanks Kimmsr, for that dense and concise post. I wish I could be more concise. [g] Very good advice. Even after gardening organically for 30+ years, I appreciate the reminder of growing plants that attract beneficials. You can never have too many. I'd like to encourage the OP that it is a journey and a very rewarding one to go chemical free. When I started gardening I was fascinated to discover that there was a whole ecology in my backyard. And while I make the effort to identify pests when I see them, often I just accept that there will always be more that I don't know than I know. I try to leave the garden to work out the balance itself because they know what they are doing better than I do. I try not to interfere unless the damage is major and even then, I search for a non toxic solution. On the other hand, I do try to see what my role is and work at that. Long ago, I took to heart the often repeated advice, to improve the soil with organic matter. The more I have worked at that the more I have seen my garden evolve in a positive direction. I also pay attention to growing clean and keeping up with the weeds, mulching, taking care of any disease issues quickly and growing varieties that are resistant to disease. I am focused on adding plant material that attracts beneficial insects and when that works out, it makes me very happy to see that. I'm always looking to add more and more. This year, I have more parsley and dill for the small parasitic wasps that take care of a lot of pests. I add alyssum for those small predators. Lots of long blooming perennials around the vegetable garden for the bees. I keep trying to sequence the bloom so there is always something to feed the beneficial insects. I've seen aphids on plants disappear in a week after ladybugs had a feast on them. I still get leaf miners on my columbine, but I cut all the foliage back to the ground after bloom and they grow a fresh batch of pristine, leaf miner free foliage. The leaf miner leaves go in the trash. I still get small amounts of Oriental Beetles which I knock into soapy water to dispose of them. Same with Red Lily Beetles and used the same technique two seasons in a row when I was overrun with earwigs. So it's learning as you go how to manage your garden in a different way. You won't get that in one season, it takes time. I haven't used any chemicals beyond an occasional home made spray made up of 1 drop of soap, garlic & red pepper. And in 30 years I can count on one hand the number of times I've used that. Later today, I'll take a photo of one of my vegetable beds that is looking pretty good at the moment and post it here. Interestingly, I was forced to purchase organic soil for raised beds when we increased the size of the vegetable garden in the spring. I was curious to see how the beds that had the soil from our old vegetable beds grew in comparison to beds with the new soil. There were two large beds of our soil and three large beds of new soil. Every year in our old beds the peppers were wonderful. Full, bushy plants with a very good amount of peppers. This year I planted peppers in the new soil and the peppers are pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I don't think there's anything wrong with the soil. It is organic soil that had 10% organic compost added to it and other organic amendments. It does seem to have a higher clay content then mine. The water is puddling on the top of the beds when it rains. But I can stand over the beds with the soil from my old beds and spray the hose full force with the nozzle set to shower and the water just drains right down even standing there for 15 minutes. So I am about to pull those peppers. They are not going to produce much if anything and I don't want to have the same problem next year, so I'm going to add more compost and sow a cover crop, let it grow until the end of the season and turn it in come Fall. It won't be perfect next season either, but I'm on the road to improving it and at some point it will be as good as what I had in my old beds. Am I disappointed that I'm not going to have peppers this year? Sure. Peppers are one of our favorite crops. But I know it's a temporary setback and an investment in next season's garden to work it out this way now. I spent a lot of time reading books. First, the book by Ruth Stout on the no work garden. Later, Eliot Coleman's books on organic gardening. I'm sure there are a ton more books to read, but I spent a lot of time on GW in the Organic Gardening forum, many years ago when there were a lot of very dedicated organic gardeners happy to answer questions. I'm happy that I did, it's worked out very well for me. Good luck!...See MoreYardvaark
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoraee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio
5 years agoTootsie
5 years agoedenchild
5 years agoJ J
5 years agoYardvaark
5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoHutchae84 Zone 8b/PNW
5 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
5 years agosm m
5 years agosm m
5 years agoYardvaark
5 years agoCherry T
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
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