The Importance of Weeding
To me weeding ranks right up there with housework: it's one of those chores that just never go away. As soon as you clear out a patch of weeds, it seems to grow right back, like a gecko's tail. After a while you begin to wonder if it really is all that important to do. Afterall, many books and garden gurus espouse the benefits of "green manure" and "living mulches" - what makes those different from your average weeds?
I have yet to resolve this question with any real satisfaction.
Green manure, perhaps, is easier to rule out. This is the name given to plants/crops sewn that will later be tilled into the garden bed. These plants are usually those that provide nutrients to the soil and are usually planted in off years when you don't put any food crops in the bed. Green manure plants include things like fava beans and buckwheat. They are also great for attracting pollinators.
Living mulches, on the other hand, are plants you stick in the ground in and among your food plants, like clover. In theory they stay low, shading the soil from the harsh rays of the sun and the sharp patter of raindrops. Additionally, they are supposed to smother out "weeds." I tried some of the clover last year...it did very well, grew quite tall, and took over a section of the garden. Hm...seems like it became just another weed.
So where do you draw the line between weeds and living mulches? Maybe it all comes down to the species of plant. Clovers, afterall, do help provide nutrients to the soil. "Weeds," on the other hand, steal the nutrients and water from your crops, reducing your yield, sometimes monumentally. Does the clover not do this, too? Enquiring minds want to know.
Until I can find a satisfactory answer to these burning questions, I guess I will just have to resolve myself to pulling the weeds. And, if you are like me and keep putting it off, let me give you some hard-learned advice: don't. Get out there and pull those weeds as soon as you see the buggers sticking up between your plants. If you don't keep on top of them, they will take over and before you know it, those lovely gardens that you sweated and strained over, digging by hand, planting with loving care, will once more become part of your lawn and you'll stand there looking at your strangled flowers wondering what happened. Yep. And then you'll find yourself back at square one, having to redig those beds, only this time you have to be careful not to damage the surviving flowers and shrubs as you thrust your spade into the soil to uproot the weeds and grasses. Uh-huh...the hard-won truth is that you must keep up with the weeding every week.
They say converting your yard to gardens will save you time. Maybe they just meant you cut back on the time you mow (which is a good thing in my book; mowing is too much like vacuuming). And the time you save not mowing can now be put to good use elsewhere, like weeding.
6 Comments:
It's the digging of the garden that creates the weed problem by exposing weed seeds to light so they can sprout and grow. If you use "no-dig" beds with paths between and keep them mulched, you will have few, if any weeds. Use straw for mulch, not hay - hay is loaded with weed seeds of its own.
The purpose of green muches is to conserve soil from erosion and leeching of nutrietns. Usually you use a"nitrogen fixing" type of gound cover plant, like the crop rotation classics rye and soybean. Weeds are just weeds.
My wife convinced me years ago to put some flower gardens in our yard. She said it would save time mowing and weed whacking. So we now have 8 gardens. 3 of them were infiltrated with a primordial weed called mares hair or horses tail. We spent the last 2 months removing most of the weed and the soil with it. Almost done replacing with fresh soil and mulch. I recently spent 5 days on pain pills and muscle relaxers. I now keep a generous supply of ibuprofen on hand to combat lower back pains. Yup, gardens are a real time saver. I wonder what I could have accomplished during those 5 days I could not move because of the back pain!
What about the importance of weed?
"weed" does have its merits.....
Anonymous: Yes, digging only increases the amount of weeds you get. This is why I don't till...it makes it even worse! I have been working on the ol' double dig method to get deep, fluffy beds, but even though I work hard at disturbing the soil as little as possible, this method also stirs up seeds. I started with lawn, and tried the smothering bit, the turning under the sod bit, etc., and every method that was boasted of by others has yet to prove to be weedless. Straw is on my list of mulches (especially for the paths, which I want to smother first under newspaper and cardboard), but right now it's not in the budget!
Espouser: I understand the concept behind the green mulches (tried the clover last year - it took over, except where the buckwheat smothered it), but the question remains. If weeds are weeds because they steal the nutrients and water from the plants you want, what keeps green mulches from doing the same? Alternatively, if green mulches are helping retain moisture in the soil by shading it (and keep it cool at the same time), why don't "weeds" provide the same benefits?
J.C.: I hear you! I started by putting in flower beds all over the yard when I bought the house. Now the weeds (one is a red sorrel thing, which is really invasive, but also strawberries and cinquefoil) are over-running the beds! Pity I can't convince the town to give me all the wood chips they create rather than blowing them into the woods; maybe then I'd have enough mulch to make a difference!
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