Posted on 06/15/2021 10:27:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Heat the vinegar up to boiling and use it OR use high acid vinegar. Either one will work and won’t harm the soil like herbicides.
No. I left that hoe and I’m never going back.
Now what was this thread about? Oh, yeah. Weeds. Can anyone recommend an effective gardening tool?
My wife wanted one of the Mantis tillers and I found one at an auction for 2 bucks. Put on a new carb and gas tank and now it runs like new and is the perfect tool for weeding a garden.
She has not run it yet, may not but I’m glad I have it.
I also have several “Scobie hoes.” Buy one of those and you never have to replace it. If you arent familiar with those, they are the kind that convicts in the old movies used to be given to work the fields with.
I raid the trash cans at carpet shops for jute backed carpet. I use it between the trellis rows so very little weeds to pull. Beside you are kneeling on carpet to work. Much easier on the knees. The roll it up and reuse next yr.
This year I’m trying the cardboard groundcover strategy in my raised beds as an experiment. Last summer I gathered cardboard boxes - with the lockdown going on and getting stuff shipped to me that was easy.
In the fall when the garden went fallow I turned over the soil and then covered it with the cardboard. This spring, instead of having an intensive session of hoeing and weeding to prep the plot for planting I was able to go straight to planting by poking holes where I wanted my starts to go.
I still have some weeding to do - mostly along the seams between the pieces of cardboard. But there has been 1/10th the amount of effort as in past years. The cardboard is isolating my veggies from the weeds and concentrating the water I give them.
The cardboard also breaks down naturally. Just don’t use stuff that has a lot of slick graphics and remove stuff like shipping labels. This fall I’ll strip the old cardboard off, turn and amend the soil, and lay down new cover.
Next a mule and a plow - fertilize as you garden; later when you sell you produce, you can get a white slave at the market to do the hard work.
Chemical weed killers, which eventually provide an open field to weeds that are resistant to them
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If 46% Glyphosate at 3 oz gal does not work, then up it to 6. Even 12 if it is 60deg or below. Be sure to include a dollop of surfactant to make it stick and not wash off in the rain.
For weeds with slippery surfaces like cattail or are resistant (sort of yellow up after spraying but do not die) add an equal amount of Mecamine with the Glyphosate
My grandmothers garden hoe had worn down to a nub when she quit gardening. No bigger than a spatula. I bet it had hoe’d hundreds of row miles of garden.
I just ordered a three-cornered hoe recently. Had one on our place as a child. They are hard to find.
I use my Dads hoe that I inherited, it also was worn down like a spatula and is still sharp as a blade. Hoeing is not work - with a sharp hoe. You have to get at the weeds early when they are tiny. I can hoe the entire garden - roughly 10’ X 40’ in about 20 minutes, the hoe does all the work, just give the soil a “shave” pulling up the tiny weeds and loosening the soil too .
My brother operated a lawn and garden business on Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands WA...One of the invasive plants he complained the most about being a nuisance was the blackberry...
Hard to believe a fruit bearing plant like the delicious blackberry could be a nuisance, but he often resorted to burning them out...Not sure if that can be done these days...
Ping!
I;ve used old carpet before, worked really good except when I was done with it, it was hard as hell to get up!
I have a really nice short-handled hoe that I use for a lot of stuff. However - a tool I use daily and would be lost without is my Korean Hand Plow. Most useful tool ever. EVER!
It comes in short and long handled versions, either of which will also save you in the coming Zombie Apocalypse. ;)
thanks gardener. my sis uses a tool like that...longer handle...can use standing up...she calls it the hula hoe. can we garden with Kamala? she’s a tool too. she’s horizontal. heels up.
: )
I covered it with netting (deer love melons) and did soap chips along the boundary and center path. Got 40 melons.
I did use cardboard and newspapers in the path and covered with mulch. I called it the "No Weed" garden.
He hasn't met my garden soil yet.
When it rains, it's mud.
When it dries out, it's concrete.
Try hoeing in either one of those situations.
Salt can kill the soil, too.
My garden needs a couple Angus to go with all those vegies. Barbecue pit nearby!!
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