Any gardening experts here?

I know...we're getting a late start, but that's typical in my house. My wife loves to garden, and I enjoy helping. We've gotten some great stuff out of the garden in the 2 summers we've been at the house. Problem is that before the gardening season is really over, we're completely over run by weeds. Last year it was so bad we had to pretty much abandon it.

The garden is big. I've never measured it, but I'm guessing it's 50'x50'. We grow lots of stuff. I wish we had the time to be out there hours on end pulling weeds, etc...but we don't.

Anyone know a relatively simple way that doesn't take all day to keep the weeds from taking over a large garden? Could we go and get some sheet plastic from Home Depot and cover the whole thing, only cutting holes where we plant? I'd think that'll keep weeds from growing, but will it hurt the plants?

You are on the right track, go to Big Lots today it you have one. It's called weed cloth, and you put it down just how you are thinking. Big lots is usually about a third the price of HD/Lowes but they run out fast. Roll it out, put some rocks and stakes in it to hold it, and cut out for every plant. You will still have to weed, but it will be far less.

Edit, I'm not an expert but both my flower and veggie gardens do stay nice most of the year, and I used the men's room at a Holiday Inn Express once. Boy did they cheap out on tp, it would hardly even come off the roll.

Kids.

My mom and dad never weeded the garden.

I don't use anything but my hands. I till the dirt in early spring to get the roots out, again a few weeks later to get what I missed, and then just try to get out there once a week to do it more.

Roundup at the beginning of the season and a hoe.

also they make this little flamethrower on a stick that you can use to kill weeds that are fresh in the ground quickly but I have no experience.

wearymicrobe wrote: Roundup at the beginning of the season and a hoe. also they make this little flamethrower on a stick that you can use to kill weeds that are fresh in the ground quickly but I have no experience.

Just a note, I won't put anything on/in my garden that I wouldn't eat or drink (other than seeds and a trellis or two, and dirt)

alfadriver wrote: Kids. My mom and dad never weeded the garden.

Y'know, weed cloth might be cheaper in the long run.

Mulch, mulch, mulch. Mucho mulcho.

tuna55 wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: Roundup at the beginning of the season and a hoe. also they make this little flamethrower on a stick that you can use to kill weeds that are fresh in the ground quickly but I have no experience.

Just a note, I won't put anything on/in my garden that I wouldn't eat or drink (other than seeds and a trellis or two, and dirt)

Is that why the gnomes look nervous?

BoxheadTim wrote:

alfadriver wrote: Kids. My mom and dad never weeded the garden.

Y'know, weed cloth *might* be cheaper in the long run.

Well, if you already have one, well. Teach 'em a lesson. I still have not figured out what that lesson was, though.

On a serious suggestion- what about high density planting?

The local strawberry farmers use black plastic - I've never tried it.

Weeds will eventually grow on TOP of the weed cloth. I have a small section of lawn that is indistinguishable from the rest - only Mrs. BDT and I know that there are two layers of weed cloth just below the surface.

My point is that you may slow the growth of weeds, but you won't stop them. We've also used layers of newspaper covered with mulch with some success.

Not sure if I'd use Roundup in a vegetable garden. May be perfectly safe, but I'm funny that way.

50'x50' is huge!

Wally wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: Roundup at the beginning of the season and a hoe. also they make this little flamethrower on a stick that you can use to kill weeds that are fresh in the ground quickly but I have no experience.

Just a note, I won't put anything on/in my garden that I wouldn't eat or drink (other than seeds and a trellis or two, and dirt)

Is that why the gnomes look nervous?

I had some yummy gnomes there for a while

Newspapers. Layer old newspapers on top of the soil, mulch over that. It blocks weeds, helps hold moisture, and biodegrades beautifully (you put down a new layer at the start of each season).

Price is right, too.

Margie

My garden is tiny compared to yours. Think 2 4x8 ft raised beds and three containers with potatoes in them. So far no weed issues, but I started with good soil. I put weed blocker fabric under my beds. Made the beds out of 2x6s. Can't imagine all the food and work involved in a 50x50 ft garden. I wouldn't have time for that either.

Yeah, the garden is pretty big. Our last house was on a 1/2 acre plot, so we had the typical suburban family garden...maybe 10x6. But we now have 3.5 acres, so we decided to go big. It's awesome though. We get great stuff. Last year we had lettuce, brocolli, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, zuchinni, strawberries, cantelope, watermelon, sunflowers and a few other things I'm forgetting.

I've got 3 kids...they'll eat the proceeds from the garden, but weeding...not so much. They're too little yet. We try our best to get outside to weed as much as possible, but with the garden that big, it takes forever and they grow real fast. We don't tend to use much in the way of weed killer or other chemicals. The ground is real fertile, so stuff grows on it's own.

I know we're going to get some weeds no matter what we do. But we want to prevent it from taking over everything.

Having had gardens off and on over they years, the best way to deal with weeds is you need to work in the garden EVERY DAY. If you start off with the weed blocking material and/or use mulch, you will be way ahead of the game. Dupont is making a cellulose based weed block that you till in at the end of the season.

But I used to be in the ag-chem business and I love the smell of some pesticides in the morning.

If you plant early, and in high density, the plants you want to grow will grow taller faster than the weeds will, and they will shade the ground underneath them.

Whatever you do, don't let weeds go to seed. Many weeds are capable of producing thousands of seeds per plant, and the seeds can go dormant for years. If you till, you will flip new seeds a few inches down, and bring older seeds back to the surface.