Question by ApplesApplesApples: Best way to get weeds out of vegetable garden?
What is the best way to weed a garden? I have a very large vegetable garden and I’m on my hands and knees everyday picking little weeds! It is mainly little clovers and little grass weeds. What is the best way to keep them out? Someone suggested raking over the dirt, and I have been doing that but I feel like it is depleting the topsoil. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by mswnana
Spread straw in between the rows. It will take a long time for weeds to grow through it, or you can walk on it and it will keep them from growing.
Add your own answer in the comments!
What I use is the brown paper that I buy in the paint section of Home Depot. It is three feet wide by 50 or 100 feet and costs around $ 9.00. I lay that down in the garden and then use the oak leaves that I raked up from the previous year. If you don’t have oak leaves use straw.
At the end of the season I just turn the oak leaves and paper into the soil.
The paper down on the walking rows is the best, then add straw on top of that. It takes a long,long time for the weeds to come up thru that if at all. They also have a type of garden cover that goes down before you plant that is black and kind of thick. This keeps the weeds out almost totally.
Hoe them out and then mulch, mulch, mulch to keep them from coming back. Next year, look into broadcast sowing of your plants – with them closely spaced, there’s less weeding.
A really inexpensive way is to lay down plain old newspaper (black and white) around your plants…wet the newspaper down with the water hose–then mow your lawn (just the grassy areas-no weeded areas) and take the grass clippings and heavily bunch them on the wet newspaper around your plants. Walk on the grass clippings to flatten them then spay down with a hose. The grass clippings will eventually dry out, acting like the straw mentioned above.
In the fall, just rototill the whole thing…everything is biodegradable.
Another inexpensive additive for weeds is using Corn meal gluten which you can find in most grocery stores
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You should find this to be of help to you.
http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/How_to_Kill_Weeds