I'm tired of weeding.....and it's only the first of June.

[Blackdog Lin]

We've never been good about keeping the garden weeded. DH is always enthusiastic about getting the garden in, but then loses interest in the heat of summer (and his disabilities prevent him from) keeping up with what needs done. So I've made a committment this year to getting out there and keeping up with stuff. I'm retiring later this year and figure I need the learning and practice.

I'm just talking weeding around the plants; DH can run the mini-tiller tomorrow to get the rows looking good.

But oy vey! All those weeds! Stoopwork! I can barely get out of my chair tonight to refresh my wine glass after an hour of weeding. :) And the weather was halfway pleasant tonight. It won't be so pleasant a month from now.

(We've gardened for years, and every year I'm out there in July/August fighting my way through the weeds trying to FIND the vegetables DH so lovingly put in in April/May.) It seems like we waste a lot of our gardening effort.

What say you Simple Livers? Is there an easier way to weed the garden? Is it just something you "suck it up" and do, however bad it gets?

[razz]

Mulch, mulch, mulch. It does help a lot. One year I planted everything into a slit of wet double newsprint spread over the area and that really helped as well with the paper disappearing over the season.

[awakenedsoul]

I use lots of straw mulch. Ruth Stout wrote a book called "How To Garden Without Breaking Your Back," and she used layers of compost and mulch. Looks kind of messy, but it works. I still have to do some weeding, but it's not so bad.


The title of this thread made me laugh! It helps to do a little bit each day, too. (I do mine in the early a.m.)

[iris lily]

Even though weeding in the hot late July/August heat is pretty awful, I usually don't mind it if there is at least a light breeze or I'm in some shade. I also dump tons of wood chips on my beds to keep down weeds. one of my lily buddies natters at me about how that changes the ph of the soil for the worse, and then the iris experts natter about how iris can't be covered, but guess what folks--there is no way I could keep up with weeds if I didn't have inches of wood chips covering my beds.

OP that stooping and bending is good for your waistline and it stretches the muscle in the back of our legs, that's what you are feeling as you dirink your wine! I do the same, drink wine, feel the burn.

[herbgeek]

Two words: colineal hoe. Best thing ever. I bought one this year and its saving me tons of time. It just shaves the weed off at the root. I can't do layers of mulch or straw on the veggie garden, or I get lots of slug damage. My old method was to bend down and pluck out the weeds (and I still do this right next to the plants), this new method is just pulling the implement along the surface and everything you don't want is destroyed. Since there is no root still attached, I can leave the debris right there to compost on the surface.

Here's the one I got, I'm sure they are also available elsewhere: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5493-standard-collinear-hoe-7-fixed-blade.aspx

[CathyA]

I feel your pain!
I've found that its so much easier to weed, if your soil is rich......so keep enriching it with compost, straw, etc.
Also, be sure to keep your hoe sharpened.
I've discovered that if you can weed it once at the beginning of the season, and then put lots of straw/grass clippings down, it helps alot.

[puglogic]

I mulch with straw - up to 6" deep - and rarely have to weed any more. Good thing, because I don't like weeding.

Plus, remember that a tiller can often make more trouble than it's worth. We have bindweed here, and if I were to chop the roots up with a tiller, we'd then have two dozen new plants growing from those chopped-up root chunks. A lot of plants are like that. Mulch is my best friend.

Herbgeek, love that weed hoe. Hmmm, might need that..... (I'm a cool tool collector)

[artist]

I used a hoe to get the weeds around the plants. Granted it's not digging them out consistantly, but it saved my back.


We've never been good about keeping the garden weeded. DH is always enthusiastic about getting the garden in, but then loses interest in the heat of summer (and his disabilities prevent him from) keeping up with what needs done. So I've made a committment this year to getting out there and keeping up with stuff. I'm retiring later this year and figure I need the learning and practice.

I'm just talking weeding around the plants; DH can run the mini-tiller tomorrow to get the rows looking good.

But oy vey! All those weeds! Stoopwork! I can barely get out of my chair tonight to refresh my wine glass after an hour of weeding. :) And the weather was halfway pleasant tonight. It won't be so pleasant a month from now.

(We've gardened for years, and every year I'm out there in July/August fighting my way through the weeds trying to FIND the vegetables DH so lovingly put in in April/May.) It seems like we waste a lot of our gardening effort.

What say you Simple Livers? Is there an easier way to weed the garden? Is it just something you "suck it up" and do, however bad it gets?

[Blackdog Lin]

My list of weeds in our garden in Kansas:

- thorny sons-a-bitches
- the giant onion-looking things, but with red bottoms (PULL them up, Lin, they're WEEDS, even though they look like onions!)
- strangler vine. I just realized this year (because this is the first year I've ever really gotten out there and taken care of things) that all those innocent-looking little individual weedy-plants are really horrific strangler vines in miniature.
- wire grass (DH has told me what it is, but I forget. Bermuda? Crab grass?) It's 25% of our lawn, but who cares, we can mow it off on the lawn. It's just when it gets into the garden and my flower gardens that I get PO'd about it.
- those other less-thorny sons-a-bitches. They're not quite as bad, or prolific, as thorny sons-a-bitches.

So I don't know my weeds. :)

I know what we deal with every year; and I have a hard time imagining mulching the entire garden - we do mulch the tomatoes and pepper plants. Doable, yes. Do I want to plan to mulch the entire garden next year? No. I can't figure out how to control weeds, in a largish but not too large, garden in Kansas.

But since my back is killing me, I have taken herbgeek's advice, and tonight ordered the colineal hoe, from the website recommended. I didn't even check prices or recommendations, I just ordered the damn thing. herbgeek: thank you. I'll let you know if it helps.....

[nswef]

I have a "dutch hoe" that is similar to the colineal hoe. It slices things nicely and you get to stand up. I got ours at Ollies ( a surplus store) after losing my mother in laws "hula" hoe or stirrup hoe. They work well in flower beds and the garden. Doing something every day seems to keep them down, too. Of course it is June...ask me in July and August if I am doing something every day....

[bluesman423]

This is one of the reasons that most of my garden is in containers this year. And all of it will be next year. I don't grow everything, potatoes and corn come to mind, but am trying to find a way to grow them efficiently in containers also.

Very little weeding, complete soil and water control. Plus the pest seems to be less of a problem. Easy to move conatiners for shade or other issues.

It costs more in the beginning but it is worth it to me.

[Blackdog Lin]

A little update:

herbgeek: thank you for the collineal hoe suggestion! I was iffy on the whole "buy a new tool and it will make your life immediately better" suggestion.....but by golly, the darn thing works! This morning was my first try with the hoe, and I can see already that it reduces my stooping-and-bending by 50% or more. It doesn't cut ALL of what I need it to (grasses: Johnson and Bermuda), but I had a fine time cutting small weedy-sons-a-bitches and small strangler-vines. Easy to get between the okra plants, and around the peppers.

Thank you for the suggestion. So far, the hoe appears to be worth every penny I spent on it.....

[herbgeek]

Glad I could help.

I'm also reluctant to buy new tools, so I understand.

[TMC]

My list of weeds in our garden in Kansas:

- thorny sons-a-bitches
- the giant onion-looking things, but with red bottoms (PULL them up, Lin, they're WEEDS, even though they look like onions!)
- strangler vine. I just realized this year (because this is the first year I've ever really gotten out there and taken care of things) that all those innocent-looking little individual weedy-plants are really horrific strangler vines in miniature.
- wire grass (DH has told me what it is, but I forget. Bermuda? Crab grass?) It's 25% of our lawn, but who cares, we can mow it off on the lawn. It's just when it gets into the garden and my flower gardens that I get PO'd about it.
- those other less-thorny sons-a-bitches. They're not quite as bad, or prolific, as thorny sons-a-bitches.

So I don't know my weeds. :)

I know what we deal with every year; and I have a hard time imagining mulching the entire garden - we do mulch the tomatoes and pepper plants. Doable, yes. Do I want to plan to mulch the entire garden next year? No. I can't figure out how to control weeds, in a largish but not too large, garden in Kansas.

But since my back is killing me, I have taken herbgeek's advice, and tonight ordered the colineal hoe, from the website recommended. I didn't even check prices or recommendations, I just ordered the damn thing. herbgeek: thank you. I'll let you know if it helps.....

You have the same weeds I do where I live!

I'm always fascinated at people who know the names of their weeds, I just know they don't belong there, must be a weed. Hate the thorny son of bitch ones!

[Gardenarian]

Have you tried a flame weeder? It can really save your back. I just use a cheap little propane torch.
I also plant very densely so there is little room for the weeds to grow.

[Blackdog Lin]

Gardenarian: tell me more. I am unfortunately yoked to a DH who thinks ANYTHING that can go up in flames, or blow up, is a good thing, so your suggestion is intriguing. We have propane canisters. I have a garden that I am committed to taking care of this year. Might DH and I get together with the garden and the propane canisters and blow up weeds toward a productive garden?

Seriously, tell me more about your method. It sounds like something I might be able to get DH onboard with.....

[Gardenarian]

Well, there are a few different ways to use torches. Some people have the big industrial set up and plow through their beds torching everything before they seed. A lot of people use the torches you can find at hardware stores (Red Dragon is a popular brand) for getting rid of weeds on their garden paths, between pavers, etc. They kill the plants by heating them up until the cells explode (you don't actually torch them until they burn - just until they wilt.)

I don't have a lot of weeds IN my beds (dense planting and lots of straw) but I do have invasive plants trying to take over my entire yard (blackberries, broom, periwinkle, English ivy) and the torch is very effective on them. (The blackberries are going to take over the world, though.) I haven't tried using this method on weeds growing right next to plants I want to keep - could be tricky.

To search for more information, they are called weed flamers, flame weeders, weed burners, and weed torches.

Here are some at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=weed+torch&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3835790771&hvpos=2t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10365313831699572590&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_7jue57omqf_b).

I just use a torch head similar to this one (http://www.amazon.com/BernzoMatic-JT680-019110-Jumbo-Flame/dp/B00008ZA0D/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1340326078&sr=8-4&keywords=propane+torch) that fits onto the end of a small propane tank.

Hope this helps!

[Blackdog Lin]

Thank you! I'm off to do some research.....