True, plastic should kill anything under there, including the microbes that decompose organic matter and make soil healthy. An odor can develop from anaerobic decomposition of large amounts of fresh green material. Plastic must be removed to garden an area smothered this way, and isn't visually appealing while waiting. Newspaper or cardboard are usually left in place because they decompose, so can be covered with mulch when laid, for an instant 'finished' look even though it's only the 1st step. Smothering with organic matter like this encourages/feeds the microbes, not kill them, and decomposes the weed matter aerobically, no concerns over foul odors or creating lifeless soil. To have a great garden, you need 'good dirt.' Pulling little sprouts as soon as you see them is easy. Pulling a big patch of something that's grown tenacious roots is hard and takes exponentially more time. Patrol/pull often and it should only take a few minutes. Doing that feels like you're mostly looking at your 'good' plants, because you are, bending occasionally to pull any sprouts you see. I usually leave them laying right where they were, to wither in the sun within hours and return their nutrients to the soil. Once you stop any weeds from dropping new seeds for a whole year in a yard, you'll be amazed at how many fewer weeds you'll see in successive years. Control is easy to maintain, so much easier than to gain initially, so don't be frustrated by all of the work the first year, or lie to yourself by doing things like just breaking the tops off of perennials but leaving the roots. (If you 'pulled' it once but it's still there, it wasn't killed or pulled, just pruned - and now you know the root must be killed/removed for certain death to result from your efforts.) Pour boiling water on that root, or get a shovel, dandelion fork, something that truly has a chance of killing that thing/getting completely rid of it. Continuing to do ineffective things is a waste of your time, and ends up using more of it in the long-term, so do it thoroughly the first time, a few more minutes, but is then the only time you deal with that thing. Birds, other critters, and wind will always bring unwanted seeds, but patches of weeds come purely from neglecting to pull something before it's produced seeds in your yard, often a single plant that can be 10,000 plants the next year if left to leave its' seeds. The other primary area of concern is those that creep in from adjacent property. Sometimes a hard barrier is needed, a row of bricks, landscape timbers, to extremes such as a trench filled with concrete. Make the effort/expense of hardscape if possible and necessary to thwart a yearly or constant border battle. Go extreme, complete, total, one year, truly getting rid of anything perennial at the roots, and not allowing anything to drop seeds, install whatever barriers or measures are necessary to enforce your borders, and then maintaining...

Last year i discovered the joys of native persimmons, we had two growing on our property but hadn't fruied until this year, already we're drowning in fruit so i looked online for simple persimmon pudding recipes and all called for persimmon pulp! However i encountered the same problem of being unable to find any methods of making it, thankfully at last one recipe had the answer it suggested just mashing the rinsed off persimmons through a colander, i have to say it works great (and you get to leave the skins on)! Thanks for reading and as always garden greener

I'd better start working out so I'll be strong enough to dig those pots in. *** I hear you sister! This is not a task for the weak-backed. DH says that he used to be an engineer, but now he is a ditch-digger. :-) Is there a specific height to the pots? Are they wider than tall? If so, do they have a specific name to them for ordering? *** The ones we use are called "Squats." And they are in fact "squatty." They're wider than the normal nursery pot. If you look to order them as "Squats," you'll get the right thing. We HAVE used non-squattier pots. But of course, they need a deeper hole, which does not appeal to us. Do you prefer the 15 or 20 gal? *** We had only a few 20's, and they were used for things we particularly prized. "Old Town Novato," for instance, is in one. The size matters little, once they get their roots out of the squat, and headed downward. We are told that gophers (I don't know about voles) stay about 18 inches below the surface. I believe that, because Miss Brisa tracks them, listening and sniffing, across the "lawn." So as long as the roots are much below that point, they're not very vulnurable. The pictures REALLY help. *** They do. We were fortunate enough to first see it in someone else's garden. Jeri

It is probably you are 100% right on all of the points in your recent post. I'll just add either my 2 cents worth or toss a bit of popcorn or eventually vermicompostable non salted peanut shells from the the peanut gallery. Powdered egg shells are what we do not want to breath when someone uses a coffee grinder or spice grinder on the egg shells. Maybe grinders grind the shells into little flake size pieces. Maybe those grind the shells into breatheable dust. I do not know. Maybe blending egg shells in liquid or quickly crushing in newspaper with a rolling pin is best. I agree egg shells are good in a worm bin from dust size to whole and any size in between. Exceptions made for those who do not like how egg shells look in vermicompost. I can agree the worms, similar to snakes, might need something with specific abilities to help with cocoon removal. I do not know what those specific things are or if egg shells have that. I do not know if egg shells provide grit for worms to digest. I do not know if worms need grit to digest. Yes worms have a gizzard type digestion system. Chickens need grit. I am not sure worms need grit. One poster here seemed to have done a test and some type of grit addition seemed to have done something positive. Archives somewhere. I'm just not yet on board with worms needing grit or with egg shells being grit. I have egg shells and adding them to the bin, whole, crushed and blenderized is done at various times. Again, I hate to not yet view the facts as you do, CarlosDanger. And I am probably wrong and could be convinced by facts the other way. I just have not bumped into those yet. I sort of disagree that worms have poorly-designed food processing systems. I do not think worms would be better off having ears, eyes, or teeth. All the better to hear, see and eat me with, my dear. I think worms fit into a system and in that system they are perfectly designed for their part in the system, poor digestion or not. Somebody, somewhere thought not having teeth was OK and called worms the "intestines of the earth". Maybe it is OK to not masticate ones food if one is an worm. Again I hate to disagree with you.