baymule
Sustainability Master
Here is our sunflower "weeds"
Weeds: which ones are most troublesome for you?
- Thread starter Joel_BC
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me&thegals
A Major Squash & Pumpkin Lover
Lamb's quarter, dandelion, foxtail and pigweed.
Hinotori
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Pretty much my whole yard is the worst. Marsh grasses, daisy, buttercup, dandelion, clover, dock, rose, blackberry, willow, and everything else is minor.
I think I hate the willow the most.
The grasses and clover are the worst in the garden. They come out pretty easy, but more sprout and grow.
In the back yard, it's actually almost just grass between the house and chicken coop. The flock loves clover, dandelion, and dock.
I think I hate the willow the most.
The grasses and clover are the worst in the garden. They come out pretty easy, but more sprout and grow.
In the back yard, it's actually almost just grass between the house and chicken coop. The flock loves clover, dandelion, and dock.
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Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
I'm not sure if the "yard" you mention is an area you're trying to cultivate. And I have no idea how large the yard is.Hinotori said:
If I were trying to cultivate it to something productive, and if it's large enough, I might be tempted to use (or hire) a tractor and rotovator. In a lot of situations that could be described in the way that you've described your yard, a rotovator would be useful to dislodge the roots of the rose, blackberry, willow, and marsh grasses. I'd think the other weeds you mention are be more amenable to ordinary hand weeding tools.
After rotovating the tough stuff, an ongoing cultivation with a rototiller or even just with shovels, trowels, and garden claws would probably be enough.
Just some thoughts (not knowing the situation).
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- #27
Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
People are free to decide which way they want to go, of course. My own experience with rotovating and rototilling is that most viable roots then wind up being accessible to me (in soft, loosened soil) with a hoe, garden claw, or trowel. I work this way (with my wife as partner in the process) on 5000 sq ft of vegetable-garden soil.~gd said:
Hinotori
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I have about two acres I battle to keep ahead of the marsh grass on mowing. Leave it two weeks and it's as tall as I am. If I can keep it cut, it eventually gives way to the shorter meadow grass that is nice and the chickens love. The roses and blackberry just wait for you to not mow for a short time. It's been a very wet year so we dont have the deer here to eat them yet. We have a lot of marsh here, one barely there stream, and a nice large stream that empty into the pond that starts here.
We started a garden early this year and I tilled it at three different well spaced times. I think there are just to many seeds. Grass and clover are the worst there. I got sick for a couple weeks, now i need to till the spots i haven't planted in, again. Just lots of hand weeding.
All this stuff keep moving into the gravel drive. The willow is driving me nuts, but mowing the drive very carefully helps.
I've thought about roundup in the worst areas of the drive. I have to wait until late summer when we dry out, if we do this year, then fence some off and treat. I wont use it when I think it might hurt the marsh. I've worked very hard the last two years to try and undo damage the last owner did to this place. We were rewarded with a ton of birds this year, and meadow voles unfortunately. Dog hunts those for me, and chickens kill them on sight.
We started a garden early this year and I tilled it at three different well spaced times. I think there are just to many seeds. Grass and clover are the worst there. I got sick for a couple weeks, now i need to till the spots i haven't planted in, again. Just lots of hand weeding.
All this stuff keep moving into the gravel drive. The willow is driving me nuts, but mowing the drive very carefully helps.
I've thought about roundup in the worst areas of the drive. I have to wait until late summer when we dry out, if we do this year, then fence some off and treat. I wont use it when I think it might hurt the marsh. I've worked very hard the last two years to try and undo damage the last owner did to this place. We were rewarded with a ton of birds this year, and meadow voles unfortunately. Dog hunts those for me, and chickens kill them on sight.
Geneally they WILL eat your garden. They earned their rep In the CROP fields. When given the chance to eat anything they perfer tender grass then young tender broadlleaf weeds BUT they will at least sample the crop [will you miss 2 or 3 cotton plants pot of a 110 acre field?] The trick in a crop field is to keep them moving move their water bucket because they drink a lot,donrae said:
There are few things in a garden that they won't eat [mine didn't touch onions] even root crops are not safe. Raspberries they will eat all they can reach. they will do a good job on any dropped fruit which help with insects and disease. you can try them but watch them I think you well decide that you can do better without them.~gd
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- #30
Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
Hinotori, now that you've descibed your situation further, I can tell that it is very different from my own. I live in a clearing amid conifer forest - and the clearing was originally cleared not just of trees but of stumps and major brush (say 55 or 60 years ago), so we rarely deal with woody-stemmed weeds. Maybe ~gd has offered the only efficient practical solution for your situation. Possibly he knows the kind of terrain you're living in much better than I can imagine it.
