I just want to say how much I love mulch. I’m actually not capable of saying much more than that, because I spent most of the afternoon laying it out, and now I’m completely kaput.
This system might not work for everyone; it’s most suited for raised beds that are intensively cultivated. It works great for me. It’ll keep the wilderness at bay while I’m in Germany, and it conserves water, too.
First I put down a couple of layers of newspaper around the plants. This is a fussy job but it results in a great weed barrier. Then my husband and I snake the soaker hose around the bed, using metal garden staples to anchor it. Here are the first two steps, viewed through the chard cage:
The gaps between the newpapers are deliberate, here, because I’ve got some microsopic chard seedling that need to grow. (The basil is in the cage too because that’s just how it worked out.) Elsewhere, I overlap the newspaper sections, sometimes tearing or cutting a notch to go around a plant.
Then we cage the tomatoes. Today that was another two-person job because they’ve grown big. Finally I add a layer of straw, which conceals the newspapers and keeps them from blowing away. The straw also helps with moisture retention.
My summer squash will probably be taken down by squash vine borers before I get back from Germany, but it will die in style. You also see more basil and some pepper plants, as well as potato-leafed tomatoes in the background.
These are more peppers and my purple pole beans.
It’s a buttload of work upfront, but I won’t have to weed this bed for the rest of the season.
And here’s the payoff: blossoms, promising I can has Sungolds.
Now I’m off to watch the start of the fourth season of Weeds, which just came out on DVD.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Clever and effective! Your garden looks great. We’re about to harvest our first zucchini (which I must do soon before it takes over the entire yard) but our tomatoes are still quite small and quite green.
We just yesterday drove by an unfortunate cookie-cutter development in south SJ and turned to each other and said, in unison, “that looks like Agrestic.” Clearly they need more gardens there.
I am envious of your zucchini. We’re just seeing the first blossoms and we leave for Germany in a week (gonna stay there for a month). So I’ll either come back to a 500-pound zuke, or – far more likely – a mess of dead vines. The vine borers have got my number.
The ‘maters are just blossoming, so I bet we’ll get back just in time to enjoy the whole harvest.
The world is full of Agrestics. I don’t know if you’ve seen where my siblings live (Folsom and El Dorado Hills) but we used to think of those places as Sim City. Now Agrestic seems the more apt analogy.
Haha Weeds! I was planning on Netflixing it soon. I am going to Germany this summer, too but not until after summer school in August. I should take your advice with the watering system and mulch, I am spending way to much time weeding.
Yeah, mulch is your friend. Especially if you’re going out of town. But since you’re in summer school, it’s not so easy to find a block of time to get it done.
Very cool that you’re going to Germany! I assume the kids are staying with your folks? Or are you taking them, too? We’ll be back in Ohio in late July, otherwise I’d say you should come find me in Berlin!
I am bringing my kids with me, we are visiting my grandmother in Nuremberg. I would love to meet you in Berlin, maybe next year. What a great town! I was only there once and it was many years ago, I think it was 1988, not long before reunification. I am glad I got to see the Berlin Wall, what a weird thing. I’ll bet Berlin is very different now.
Oh, that’s wonderful that you’ll get to see your grandmother. Great for the kids, too.
Berlin changed a lot during the 1990s. Many of the wild parts are now tamed, so to speak. I sort of miss the old Berlin from the early 1990s, with its squatted houses and unofficial bars in the east.
[...] can, of course, use this method in planting anything – shrubs come to mind – or in establishing large areas for new beds and [...]
[...] closely, you’ll shade out the weeds, though you will still save yourself lots of work if you lay down a good layer of mulch. For more info on intensive techniques, check out square foot gardening (which is useful for [...]
[...] Apart from the tree growing out of the edge of the garden, we’ve got no real weed issues. That is, unless you consider my squash a weed, which might not be far off. Once again, yay for mulch! [...]