keeping weeds down in a 1+ acre plot?

10 years ago

Me and a couple friends are tending a 1+ acre garden just up from my house. It hasn't been tended in years so it's basically fallow ground. I thought about sowing cover crops in empty spaces but there aren't too many that stay relatively low to the ground... getting stuff like newspapers and cardboard boxes isn't feasible for us right now. I did sow some alfalfa, clover an buckwheat around my corn, melons and pumpkins. Any ideas that could help us out? We're dealing with red clay and a lot of rocky ground.

Abby

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Comments (10)

pnbrown
10 years ago
What equipment do you have? That pretty much determines how to go about it.

IME, a full acre of arable would be difficult for even two or three people without some aggressive motorized tillage equipment or draft animals, unless we are talking about nearly full-time.
User
10 years ago
An acre is getting into the farming scale of things, beyond gardening.
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zeuspaul
10 years ago
A string trimmer will cut a lot of weeds quickly in the larger open areas.

Zeuspaul
nancyjane_gardener
10 years ago
John Deere is my best friend! I bought Dearie about 4 years ago and she has MORE than paid for herself! We used to have to hire a guy with a tractor 2x per year @ $300 per. No more! Dearie does the trick!
Next I'll buy a tiller to hook up. Nancy
phantom_white
Original Author
10 years ago
I've got access to 2 large tillers, my new Mantis tiller, a weed eater and the normal hand tools. We get out there a couple times a week. All things considered, it doesn't look bad right now. I know once we get some rain things are gonna get hairy though.

Abby
mckenziek
10 years ago
It sounds like you are not planning on planting the whole acre right away. All you have to do is till the areas you are using and mow the areas you aren't using. So you need a mower and a fairly serious tiller. I would avoid tilling anything until you are ready to plant. Mowing is much easier. Often when you till, new types of weeds sprout up. I see a lot of thistle turn up in previously tilled areas.

If you already have a tiller, then maybe you can mow with a string trimmer. For an acre, I would probably get pro-quality equipment (Stihl or similar). You can put blade attachments on them that will cut through woody shrubs and other things that you can't cut with string.

Another option is to rent or buy a walk-behind tractor like a BCS. They have rear tiller attachments, and also front mower attachments. They are also called two-wheel tractors. You can find them used on craigslist or similar.

I have one, and it makes fairly short work of the mowing jobs. I don't use the tiller much, but it is a strong tiller. I have around 5 acres to mow, and I use a mixture of the BCS and a Stihl string trimmer and a hedge trimmer.

BCS stuff is not cheap, but it is durable and holds its value.

Let me know if you want more details on any of this. I'm not an expert, and I only moved to this place less than two years ago, so I am kind of figuring it out myself.

--McKenzie
planatus
10 years ago
If you have it weeds under good control now it will pay off all season. Little plots of buckwheat can be your best friend because they will hold spots until you're ready to reuse them, and buckwheat is very easy to take down.

Do consider getting a stirrup hoe (horseshoe hoe, loop scuffle hoe). Fastest way to weed long rows.
phantom_white
Original Author
10 years ago
We've been tilling as we go. The whole area was tilled and turned a couple times earlier in the year and the weeds are just now starting to spring up. We're direct sowing everything we have- crazy things happened with all our seedlings so we had to start from scratch. It's raining now (FINALLY!!!) so I'm hoping we'll have new sprouts in a few days. This garden is more of an experiment than anything. We'll get a decent harvest but it'll probably be later than most.
There's a rental place not far from me that has tractors, big tillers, ect. and their prices are good. That's an option I have if things get too out of hand.
I think I have a stirrup hoe... it's some odd looking thing that sounds similar to what you described. I'll have to dig around the garage and find it.
Now I'm looking for a quick germinating, quick growing cover crop that can fill in spaces after they've been planted...

Abby
pnbrown
10 years ago
It's a function of time available. Keeping weeds under good control on an acre by hand is a lot of time. IME, if you let grassy weeds get established you will not control them with a hoe, you either have to let it remain grass and cut it by hand or power, or turn the root mass by shovel which is mad amounts of labor. I find this in light soil, in heavy soil it is much more the case and the labor will be much greater.

If you are serious, you must hoe every area at least once a week until the crops shade the ground. Otherwise various difficult weeds will get beyond hoeing and then on the scale of an acre you will be overwhelmed without machinery.
User
10 years ago
When you find the hoe, sharpen it. Nothing like a knife edged hoe to cut through the weeds.

keeping weeds down in a 1+ acre plot?

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keeping weeds down in a 1+ acre plot?

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