Herbicide Free and Worm Friendly
We needed a natural garden weed control that’s cheap, natural, organic and effective without harming the environment.
Now we know weeding can be therapeutic and even enjoyable. Gardeners tell us they find it a relaxing garden therapy for else stress relief and annoyances. Besides which, gardeners just want to get out and play in the dirt. We get it. But come July, with a garden in full swing, we just don’t have time for that.
So we did some research and came up with a super simple natural garden weed control barrier. But first, the writer in Coleman had a little fun, likely fueled by a recent viewing of the interstellar show, The Expanse, that he and the kids thoroughly enjoying, (sprinkled with the Star Trek lingo of years past). 😊
If you want to go straight to “before you kill the weeds“, or “garden weed control“…
Coleman’s Extraterrestrial Musings
Gardener’s Log – Stardate: March 2019. In route to a multi-universe of possibilities. We seem to be approaching a wormhole that could possibly shred us in all directions.
Our prime directive informs us we must prioritize the Mission to boldly go where no gardener has gone before . . . Or something like that.
Before I break out into Klingon, let’s have a look at our situation on our home planet.
Spring Garden Cleanup
There’s always a full spring gardening to do list in early spring, and one of thoses that will save you time in the busiest garden season in midsummer, is to implement garden weed control early.
We’ve had to prioritize and to some extent, compromise our fantastic plans for this year’s gardens. As we’ve written before, such as in this “humble gardener” post, our problem is sunlight. Seasoned gardeners know — and beginning gardeners soon discover — that gardening is not a walk in the park.
We live in the woods and just don’t have enough open space for a large vegetable garden. And yes… we’ve already felled a few trees, limbed some with our cordless pole saw, and also had to hire professional arborists tree trimmers for some big tricky jobs.
So part of our winter and spring gardening cleanup tasks have involved cutting down dead trees and then cutting, splitting and stacking them for firewood. We heat our home and hot water with a water stove in winter, so it’s awesome to have so much free fuel around. It’s not free in labor but always a good workout and a good day’s work done to have a full stack of wood at day’s end.
But we love the woods and see these majestic trees as friends after over 30 years of living amidst them, so we prefer not to cut down more if there’s another way. So we’re working on better strategies overall between our resident property, versus the “upper garden” of our future residence with lots more open space.
Anyway, I digress, so back to the topic of garden weed control, which is another spring gardening task that — if done up front, will save you lots of time and stress. Come mid summer heat when the pests are attacking plants and mosquitoes are attacking you, plants need watering, pest control and harvesting, you’ll be glad the weeding is handled!
Before You Kill the Weeds
3 Things to Consider Before You Get Rid of Your Weeds
- What your weeds are telling you about your soil health
- Whether your weeds are edible, for food or tea
- Whether your weeds are beneficial for medicinal remedies
Blueberry Orchard Garden Weed Control
It was time to spruce up the blueberry patch!
Choking on Weeds
A most pressing item on our spring to-do list was to take care of our small blueberry orchard in the upper garden. Last year, time-challenged, we let the weeds and brambles slip in and they begin to take over, as they are wont to do and will given any time to! The weeds and woods will reclaim its turf!
Briars and Brambles
The brambles were mostly raspberry bushes, and a few of the rugosa rose bushes. Turns out the roses can be wicked invasive and very hard to deal with due to being extremely thorny. We’ve decided the wonderful large rose hips they produce may not be worth all the extra maintenance, so we’ll cut them back severely.
Orchard Facelift
We also needed to improve the overall appearance of the blueberry fencing.
Our original solution for keeping birds, deer and other varmints out of the blueberries was to install a cage made from PVC pipe draped all over with lightweight bird netting. It was relatively simple, and it worked.
However, the white PVC pipe wasn’t pretty and detracted from the scenic views. Plus, getting in under the netting for harvesting and maintenance presented some challenges, unless you’re hobbit sized. (What was I thinking 🤦🏻)?
Problems With Bird Netting
UPDATE: We’ve stopped using bird netting after having birds and good garden snakes get horribly caught up and entwined in the plastic mesh netting. We rescued several but didn’t get there in time for a couple others, and hated to see both scenarios.
So… we found another easier and better solution for the birds, as well as one for the deer!
Next: So time for an upgrade to the blueberry patch!
Dismantling the Netting and PVC Pipe Fencing
Dismantling the pipe system was our first task. After taking down all the netting, the 1 1/2 inch posts and cross pieces were quite easy to remove.
I’m so glad we didn’t glue the PVC together with cement! Instead, the support posts had been slipped over 6 ft t-posts and “dry fitted” into the connectors. We decided to let the green t-posts remain as they blended in fairly well with the landscape and yet define a perimeter. Besides which, they may come in handy for future fencing.
Easy and Inexpensive Temporary Orchard Fencing
This season snuck up on us… well… we’ve been uber busy too, so no time to build the enclosed screen structure before the blueberries are out this year. Besides that, we’d also like to see if we can get away without having to!
Instead, we’re going to wrap the perimeter and overhead with reflective tape for bird deflectors and perhaps hang CD suncatchers from the tape to spin and flash even more in the breeze . Hopefully that will be enough to thwart the wildlife this season .
We’ll keep you posted.
UPDATE: So we didn’t need the CD Rom Suncatchers! The reflective tape has worked beautifully to keep birds away from the blueberries and so simple to install!
GARDEN WEED CONTROL
When we planted our blueberry bushes in 2012, we used heavy duty weed barrier fabric. Over the years, successions of shredded bark mulch have created a thick layer of composted material that has invited runners and roots from all directions. Weeds and brambles were taking over.
Mulching on top of a weed barrier creates a whole other medium for weeds to grow. So mulching is not 100% weed free, but it’s definitely an improvement over no mulch, plus deep mulch gardening has additional beyond weed control.
While under no illusion that any organic or natural solution will achieve 100% weed control, the method we’ve chosen for our blueberry patch works quite well.
Our natural garden weed control barrier of choice for this year is cardboard.
Is Cardboard Safe for Garden Weed Control?
Surfing the various garden blogs and extension services, it’s no surprise that there are two basic camps of opinion:
- For cardboard use in the garden
- Against cardboard use for garden weed control
After investigating, we’ve decided to give corrugated cardboard a go and form our own conclusions. Here’s some of what we learned. By the way, when mentioning cardboard, it’s always the corrugated type that makes up most boxes.
Benefits of Cardboard for Natural Garden Weed Control
Folks who favor cardboard include no-till, sheet composting, layered bed lasagna gardening, and in some cases, permaculture gardeners.
PROS of Cardboard in the Garden
- No herbicide
- Attracts worms
- Composts into the soil
- Allows the soil to breathe
Is cardboard safe to use? We think so. Basically, cardboard is mostly paper.
“Someone in the industry gently explained that… ‘cardboard’; it’s a catch-all term used to cover a wide array of heavy duty paper-based products. He added that he was in the cardboard box business and was pleasantly surprised to learn that corrugated cardboard shipping boxes are very clean—just about all paper, no glues and no bleach.”
~Mike, GardensAlive.com
Negatives of Cardboard for Natural Garden Weed Control
Then, there are those who are against introducing a manufactured product containing glues, coatings, inks, and water resistant materials that may actually do more harm than good to the soil environment.
However, most cardboard boxes are mostly paper, and any glue for adhering the box flaps together is too small an amount to cause concern.
CONS of Cardboard Mulch
- Reduces water absorption
- Can impact exchange of soil aeration and gases
- Takes too long to break down (according to some)
Horticultural professor and researcher, Linda Chalker-Scott, PhD., is definitely not a fan of using corrugated cardboard as a mulch.
Putting down a layer of cardboard covers the soil “with a tough, relatively gas-and-water-impermeable material that will take some time to break down. It’s hardly a mulch that’s going to nurture soil life.”
~Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, PhD, GardenProfessors.com
However&helli