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Square Foot Gardening

Salting the Earth???

6 years ago

Please forgive if this is a crazy idea. Thinking about weed control for next year I hit upon the idea of using rock salt to kill weeds and if leached into the soil most everything for possibly quite some time. It's most likely wishful thinking but I was wondering - could I?, would I dare? - use rock salt for the paths between the garden boxes to control weeds and what effect I might be bringing. Fyi, my boxes are currently 6" deep (I've often thought about adding to that) and 3' wide. The paths are 2' wide and seem to have a passion for weeds. Currently the boxes have open bottoms, but I will be doing a lot of soil amending this off season so it wouldn't be that much additional work to empty them completely and put down some sort of bottom. Curious to see if anyone has tried something like this in the past and its effect. By the by, in the past I've mostly just used straw (not hay) in the paths to control weeds which is likely my safest bet. Thank you

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Comments (3)

war garden
6 years ago
bad idea
lgteacher
6 years ago
Salt can leach into the surrounding soil making it inhospitable for other plants.
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aptz
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for the responses. Actually I was mostly venting about my weeds. But it is good for anyone who gets frustrated with weeds (probably many of us) to hear - don't do it. Even it is very tempting. But, I do still wonder if the salt was used among plants in containers instead of plants grown in the ground if it wouldn't take care of the paths. Of course, that means I'd better not on plan on changing things for some number of years. I was rather curious how far the leaching spreads out and I really don't want to try just to find out.

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