Weeds Weeds Weeds

The bane of the home gardner is undoubtedly the never ending battle of the weed. Weeds as such can be defined as any plant not intended for harvest. On the little plot my wife and I garden, we are blessed with a plethora of weeds. We have tried to be very organic in our endeavors, but have not had a lot of luck keeping out the weeds. During the initial period of turning the soil and planting the garden it appears we have conquered the weed devil, but alas, he always reappears.

Our main problems are grasses. Goose grass, crab grass and wire grass. Of course goose grass spreads throughout the garden while the crab grass and wire grass wander aimlessly along spreading into a patch here and a patch there until they eventually become a mat. Of all the grasses, wire grass and crab grass are the most invasive and the most difficult to control. Crab grass will grow under anything to emerge outside the most well laid mulch. This is due to the long underground roots that continue their journey hither and yon. One may think that tilling the grass would kill it ; however, tilling crab grass has the effect of chopping it into a thousand little pieces which when covered with soil immeadiately root and help the mat spread further. My poor wife has spent many an hour digging with her trowel and bare hands to remove as many roots as possible in her raised beds only to have the shoots reappear later in the growing season. As soon as we turn the soil, we use a garden rake to remove as many of the clumps and roots as possible before planting. Once planting is finished, we use a mulch to suppress the emergence of our dear little grass friends.

We have tried all types of mulch (paper, plastic, straw, pine tags) and have had some success with each of those. But for all we have tried, we have had the most success with good old straw. A good bed of straw placed thickly around each hill or along each row of crop not only hinders the growth of grass, but also helps to retain moisture. We have found that extending the straw out from the crop at least 18 inches works best.

Of course, if the grass has spread beyond control and the gardner has an aversion to the familiar tool known as a hoe, much as I do, there is always the alternative of using a growth inhibitor of which there are several on the market. If used, the directions should be followed faithfully to preclude the demise of whatever it is that is being grown. The use of growth inhibitors makes the garden less than organic, but, one has to do what one must to overcome the weed devil!

It is now the middle of February and we who love to get our hands dirty growing vegetables and flowers can hardly wait for the weather to break to begin the process of doing what we love best, i.e., tilling, planting, reaping and ruing the aching back, the sore shoulders and the inevitable cursing of the weed devil. On the other hand, nothing beats sitting down to a good meal of vegetables that has been grown by ones own labor.