HELP severely overgrown garden
Ten
8 years ago
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Overgrown garden HELP!!!!!!!! (kinda long)
Comments (8)Yes! Where are you? I just moved here and have NO plants and I'd love to take some off of your hands come the end of May when I think I'll have the garden hardscape done. *sigh* If you can't wait that long then you can always take them to the annual plant exchange that I've seen talked about. Or maybe even offer them on something like Freecycle. Or compost them :( As for your weeds. Ick! Creeping charley is very hard to get rid of from what I've heard. If it's anything like creeping jenny then Round-up is just gonna make it look sick. My dad who in the last 5 years has switched to organic farming mixed up a concoction of water, vinegar and some other things. It didn't kill it but it worked just about as good as the chemicals you'd buy. But maybe someone here knows more than me (which is most definitely the case). Take your time in figuring out how to clean-up. Do you want the plants in the same area? If you're digging things up this would be a good time to assess what you want to achieve. Are there plants you just didn't care for? Was there an area that just didn't have as much color as you wanted? Is everything getting the right amount of sun? Once you have a plan, then comes the back-breaking work ;) Anyway, HTH! and Have Fun! Tanna B....See Moreovergrown garden
Comments (7)ok, so you have a new, but previously used plot of land which is filled up with weed seeds, what do you do? Hehe, lots of things can be done, but nothing is perfect. The first thing you have to understand is that those weed seeds can survive for many years in the soil. They are long term and each year weed seeds are introduced to the soil as they are blown in or brought in by other means. Weed control is never "done". One way to try and get rid of the weeds seeds is via solarization. What you do is place clear plastic over the soil. This takes several months and needs to be done in the heat of summer. The idea is the sun heats the soil and the clear plastic while allowing the sun's rays through doesn't allow the heat to escape so the soil heats up and bakes the weed seeds, killing them. This method stinks when you want quick action because it takes months and kills soil bacteria and fungi which are beneficial. Another method is to till the soil. This kills the existing vegetation and exposes some seeds which will sprout. A couple weeks after the first tilling till again to kill the newly sprouted weeds. Repeat as often as necessary until the weeds are reduced. Sound like a lot of work? It is, but it does work. The disadvantage is it destroys soil structure and as a result the fungi, bacteria, worms and bug which take care of soil for you are discouraged. Your best bet, in my opinion is to use a couple different techniques which are fast acting and less work. First, use 3+ inches of mulch along all pathways in the garden. This prevents the seeds from getting light so they don't germinate. In the growing area you can use mulch *after* the desired plants are up and sturdy to smother weed seeds, but all organic mulches break down and become 'soil' for new weed seeds before long. At this point you have to consider whether or not you care to use chemicals. There are germination inhibitors that prevent all seeds from sprouting and these can be applied in areas where you have plants safely. You will not be able to sow seeds in the area you use a germination inhibitor on though for a few months. Preen is a commonly available product that accomplishes this. In the end though I think a little time spent regularly in the garden with a weeding hoe does the best job. The idea is sever the plant from it's roots regularly and it won't grow enough to set seed. Eventually the plant dies without having reproduced. The hoeing also exposes buried weed seeds so has the same effect as tilling, but without as much destruction of the soil structure....See Moregarden all planted and now soil is severely alkaline. Help?
Comments (9)The test kit soil check says 8.0 and was very dark green. We did make the soil last year; half organic compost, one-fourth vermiculite, one-fourth peat. Last year nothing grew, all plants (especially peppers never grew an inch from the day I put them in the ground) completely stunted. The tomato plants grew somewhat but all summer had maybe 3 tomatoes on them. I was working and just walked away from the whole thing. I live in Southwestern Idaho and it's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. This year a garden guy suggested we get real dirt from somewhere on the property and add to the beds. We selected a spot that had nice rich dirt with lots of earthworms in it and added two full wheelbarrows to each bed (beds are about 2 ft deep x 5 ft long x 4 ft wide). We hoped adding the regular dirt would fix the beds, but the tomatoes I planted a month ago are looking "pinched" with the leaves drawn up and not happy or normal. Thank you for answering my post; any advice is so appreciated. Gardening in Tucson is a challenge no doubt. My sister lived there for many years, so I'm familiar with Tucson....See MoreNeed help taming overgrown vegetable garden
Comments (5)You don't mention the size of your garden and a photo would be a big help to see the specific problems. But the most common cause of "over-grown garden" is that it was over-planted and over-crowded to begin with. So for next year better organized may just mean better plant spacing. It also sounds like you have perennials (rhubarb, strawberries, etc.) mixed with annuals rather than giving the perennials their own separate space. And you have spring crops intermixed with summer crops. That makes organizing a garden even more difficult for many reasons. Lettuces in July? Potatoes should be done and dug by now given the heat. Just some thoughts for consideration. Dave...See MoreTen
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