[Jonty30]

That’s a good point.

However, I was thinking along the lines of your house garden when I made my comment. Many people spray instead using natural remedies where they can.

For example, I was reading some time ago that you can create the richest garden imaginable if you dig up your garden and remove the dirt. Then interlace carbon and dirt when you put it all back.

[pierrem15]

You can get incredible yields using raised bed techniques. My grandfather had a Masters in Agricultural Engineering. My father grew up on a huge farm in the French Protectorate of Morocco. They sold everything for pennies on the dollar in 1954 to another French farmer expecting the independent Moroccan kingdom to confiscate the land, which they did. The farmer who stayed shot himself, and Morocco experienced a famine. My grandfather got a contract from Borden to manage dairy farms in upstate NY.

My grandfather built a couple of raised beds behind his house in upstate NY: 8 foot tall trellises full of tomatoes, squash, etc. The whole family would go to collect the surplus and can every summer. It was incredible, but very labor intensive.

[Paul R.]

Everything has it’s costs. Use that vinegar based weed killer recipe and you’ll start turning your soil more acidic. Mine in my garden is too acidic for many veggies to to begin with, so then I have to do even more correction.

Then again, almost no veggies (seeds or starter plants) that I can obtain are resistant to ANY weed killer besides me pulling up the weeds without disrupting the desired plants.

Obviously that latter does not apply to modern (ie., cost effective) farming techniques.

Well, at least one of the opossums that has been digging up the garden got a lead pellet in the head earlier tonight. (He made the mistake of going over by the chicken house and alarming them, which alerted me...) I’ll behead and gut him tomorrow, boil him in mild salt water, and turn him back over to the chickens. This will make them very happy.

TANSTAAFL.