WHAT!!!
How can I stand weeds growing in my tomatoes? What about the grass in my peppers? Pigweed in the pumpkins?
Truth is, to me, leafy weeds and grass are just standing mulch waiting to be chopped down with the string trimmer to feed soil biology and help retain moisture.
Weeds and grass steal nutrients from my plants you say, rob my precious produce of moisture? I say this has not been my experience. The exact opposite has been true for me. Allowing the weeds and grass to grow and then wacking them down has had a positive effect on my garden, my back and my mental health.
Does a weedy nightmare work for everything? No, it doesn't. Carrots, radishes, onions, strawberries and other low growing crops won't tolerate the competition and are hard to find in the brush.
Tall crops like tomatoes, peppers, and corn will benefit from a living cover crop as will pumpkins, most squash and cucumbers. Any plant that will grow taller than the weeds or cover the weeds like black eyed peas all do fine here on our farm growing up and over the goatweed.
YIKES!! Just look at that mess. How can you stand it? Simple truth is that I don't really like the way it looks either but it works and quite well. Those tomatoes are 6 feet tall and the peppers are 4 feet tall and loaded with fruit. All without synthetic fertilizer (we use compost) and no chemicals or organic treatments of any kind,
The cucumbers were more than abundant on this trellis.
Pumpkins plants thriving in the grass.
Black eyed peas covering everything in their path.
Looks a little better after trimming and the soil stays covered in a mulch that I didn't have to haul in.
Not a method for everyone, that's for sure, but it has really worked well for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment