The Cockeyed Garden Again

Now that I've regained some of my energy from my July fiasco, I noticed some green poking through the landscape barrier cloth in the garden. Maybe, we should have used black plastic here too.

As Two Women and One Hoe points out, weeds continue to grow underneath and on top of it. But I was thinking buried under a foot of wood chips, and then the landscape fabric would work and save energy.  We wouldn't have to aerate the soil or water it.When organically growing a garden, you use what nature gives you. You use the compost, wood chip, hay, and nonsprayed hay to do the work for you. The blackness of the fabric retains heat of the composting material and the sun.  But it also needs moisture to work properly. I should have known better.

The weeds grew through two feet of wood chips and another foot of organic material (composting chicken and rabbit manure) and dying weeds would work. No, but Mel's weeds are super strong. They are even growing THROUGH the gravel in our driveway.  These are almost impossible to pull up without pulling up destroying the driveway. It's 2" of coarse grade rock and 8" of finer compacted gravel. Yes, some are growing on top of all that gravel, but those are shallow rooted and easy to pull.


So this week, I've been pulling and snipping weeds in the garden taking frequent breaks. UGH! Just what I was trying to avoid. But, my incisions have healed nicely and my strength is getting better. The weather is cooler so it's not sweltering outside, but I'm still sweating from the exertion. If I don't get them now, it will undermine all of our garden starting from scratch again efforts.

What's a homesteader to do otherwise? We can't afford a busted garden year next spring. The stores pickings will be almost empty by then. The idea of being like city folks again and buying everything, is an abhorrent thought! Especially when I know, there's at least two feet of rich, organic soil there to plant in. No,no, no, perish the thought! All those chemicals, waxes, and oils, no thank you. I'll go back to planting in pots before I do that.

I'm not opposed to pots, mind you if that's all you can do. But, when you've got almost got a little less than 1/2 an acre of growing space of rich organic soil, why would you? The only thing we plant in pots are the not cold hardy plants like our ginger and turmeric, and citrus trees, or starting seeds. Even then, we are using our own soil and compost to grow them in. Can you imagine how many pots we'd need to grow enough to be self sufficient? Besides the cost of the pots, it's impractical not to mention insane. I'd be watering constantly.

So I'll continue to pull weeds when I see them. They'll eventually go dormant.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Cockeyed Jo