The power of mulch

Two things that turn some folks off of gardening are weeds and insect pests. But fear no more! There is often a very simple, natural solution to both of these problems. I'll explain how choosing and using a good mulch will both control and eliminate problems with weeds and many pests. But first, what is mulch? Mulch is organic matter that has been broken down some. You often see it spread around the base of trees. It is not big chunks of bark, but is rather cuttings of plantlife of all kinds.

WEEDS
Mulch is a wonderful, natural way of controlling weeds. When you spread it on yourgarden, it keeps the soil cool and also helps keep your plants' roots cool. It also helps maintain the soil moist. As for weeds, mulch basically doesn't allow weeds to grow. It gives them no room and no sunlight. In essence, a good mulch will choke out weeds so that you don't have to break your back pulling them.

PESTS
But how can mulch deal with the pests that plague our plots? Firstly, having mulch around the base of your plants and on open ground has been shown to confuse pests. Slugs and snails have trouble navigating through mulch, and other pests find it hard to get through the mulch and at the roots of your plants.

Furthermore, if you choose a light colored mulch, like cedar or even straw, the sunlight will reflect off of it and bugs seem to hate that. It repels them in droves.

So now it comes to testimony. I have never once used any kind of pesticide or herbicide on my flower gardens. I got lucky in that I met an organic gardener early in my own gardening career. She taught me the value of good mulch. So I have used it and have only had the occasional problem with grass encroaching (I don't have much in the way of borders around my plots.). In essence, mulch is one of a gardener's best tools.

Since I didn't post yesterday,

I will put up two posts today. 


But first, let me explain. No, it would take too long. Let me sum up. 


(If you get the reference, you get a pat on the back!)


So I have been blasting away at my MA project write up. If you don't know what MA means, it is my Master of Arts degree. I have completed all of my course work, and now I must finish the write up and defend and all of that. Last night I finished the first major draft of the write-up. It's about sixty pages long. Because I had to get it done last night, I opted to stay focused on it until it was done. Then it was really late and bed called. 


Two posts today. One now and one later! (Is anybody else suddenly thinking about chewy candy?)


The first one is what I will call the icing on the cake of soil cultivation. Did you know that one of the best ways to fight weeds in your garden is by cultivating healthy soil? Here's what I've learned. 


You see, I am an avid gardener. I love to have my fingers in the soil and I particularly love to have my kids join me in the garden. But I am by no means a pro. My neighbor from two doors down, on the other hand, is very much a pro. The other day I was complaining to her about the weeds that spring up from all the elm tree seed pods that fly around during the spring. So she said she never really has a problem with weeds. Stupefied, I listened as she described how she controlled weeds.

Shirley is her name. She told me that keeping the soil healthy and cultivating and nourishing it is the surest way to control weeds. Here is what she does.

Every Autumn, when the season is over, she has her husband till the garden up, with all of the dying veggie plants and some steer manure mixed in. He tills the garden well, breaking up the clumps and loosening it well.

Then, come Spring, Shirley has her husband till the garden again. This turns any nascent weeds upside down and kills their root system stone cold dead. After that, Shirley and her husband, Ted, top the garden soil with the bottom of their compost heap.

All of this activity keeps the soil's natural nutrient balance perfect, and also gets rid of the weeds that sometimes sprout from flying seeds. Furthermore, the soil promotes spectacular flowers and veggies. When these veggies and flowers grow strong and healthy, they basically do not allow weeds to come around and take up space.

As a final note, we are also glad we have chickens. When those elm seeds go flying and end up on our ground and garden plots, we let the chickens loose. Those happy hens gobble the elm seeds up-- nipping the problem right in the bud!

I'll see you later today. Remember: you can follow this blog and use Google Reader to keep up to date with the feed. You can also just use whatever RSS feed you already use. But don't keep it to yourself! Share!

No chickens today.

But I have a good reason: I was busy all day with work, helping someone move, and then an anniversary date. Yes, that's right, today is our 12th anniversary. Okay, by today, I mean April 30th. Because May 1st is not our anniversary-- that's my birthday.

So because I was busy all day, I still haven't taken the pictures I feel like I should use for my piece on the chickens. Thus, I will instead share some thoughts on basic organic weed control. This will apply to weed control in the garden

Weeds, contrary to many novice gardeners' belief, are not the bane of organic gardeners' existence. In truth, it's the bugs that really cause problems. But just as in the case with garden pests, there are some nice organic solutions to the weed problem which can help your garden flourish. These solutions can be broken down into two categories: prevention and elimination.

PREVENTION

The old adage of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies to weeds particularly well. Here are some of the more choice organic approaches to preventing weeds from growing in your beloved garden patch.

*Black plastic weed-blocker. This material is easy to come by at most nurseries and home improvement outlets. It is very simple. When you have your garden patch ready, with all of the manure or other organic materials tilled in and the soil well prepared, cover the patch completely with the black plastic weed-blocker. That's right, cover the whole patch.

When you're ready to put your seeds or seedlings into the ground, you can simply cut holes into the weed-blocker cloth for your plants to grow through. What's nice is that most of this cloth is porous enough to allow water to get through and keep the plants you want to grow fed. However, this writer has found that laying out soaker hose and then covering the patch with the cloth works best.

*Mulching. This approach is simple, but is not quite as reliable as the weed-blocker cloth. The intent is the same: to not allow the weeds to grow. However, arranging mulch around your plants and seeded areas simply doesn't work as well to block weeds. This is because the weed seeds that come from the trees or plants nearby can still work their way through the piles of mulch and establish themselves.

The benefit of using mulch, on the other hand, is that mulch is a nice organic material that fertilizes even while it is blocking weeds from growing.

*Soil cultivation. As you work the soil of your garden plot, you will naturally be helping it become healthier. You will also be eliminating any old established roots of weeds and grass that were already there. I know a woman who has been nurturing her garden plot for over twenty years. She has no problems whatsoever with weeds.

ELIMINATION

*Organic herbicides. There are several effective organic herbicides on the market today. These include AllDown, Xpress and Matran 2. These have been shown to be more effective on emerging weeds than on established weeds, but they can still help with established weeds.

But that's not all! Some organic gardeners have found that vinegar can be an effective herbicide as well. To try this out, use a sponge to apply your household vinegar onto the leaves of the weeds you want to kill. You can also try this with soap, but most soaps will not kill weeds.

*Manual destruction. In the desert, some folks use a portable propane torch to burn weeds out of their garden areas. This is effective and is also a permanent solution. If done carefully, this approach will do no damage to the garden plants you are nurturing.

Another manual approach to weeds is to simply pull them. In order to increase your ability to pull weeds easily and completely, water well the day before you are going to weed. This will soften the ground, making it easier to pull weeds. You can also use a hoe to cut down weeds en masse, although this will leave the roots in most cases. But as a quick fix to large amounts of young weeds, the hoe can't be beaten.

Ultimately, using organic approaches to killing weeds is a choice that each gardener has to make individually. What it comes down to is whether you are willing to do a little extra work to keep the soil of your garden properly balanced.