Weeds

Weeds are the bane of a farmers' existence. That and flea beetles. But mostly weeds. No matter how vigilant you are, weeds grow everywhere.

I once heard someone say that a weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it. The meaning being, I think, is that weeds are plants just like your lettuce or peppers, only you didn't plant them so they are unwanted but should be preserved. I take a more hardline approach. Weeds are squatters, robbing water, root space and nutrients from the rightful inhabitants of the soil and should be removed.

Being an organic farmer, that means removing them without herbicides and toxic chemicals. There are many organic methods for weed control. Vinegar is supposed to kill off weeds, but I haven't had any success with it. Some people use portable flamers (really) to burn the weeds. I'm sure this will work, but since we have pine bark mulch and wooden raised beds, this is not a smart option for One Love Farm.

That leaves us with two real options. Manually pulling the weeds (and hoeing them) and smothering them with mulch. We like to use the plastic weed block that breathes and allows air and water circulation. This works well in paths and between beds. However, it is not very attractive for ornamental beds. For those we use pine mulch. We weed the area first as weeds will easily grow through the mulch and then pile it high. This will smother most weeds, but you have to be careful to keep the areas around the bed weed free as weeds will creep into the bed over time.

Yesterday was over 90 degrees with oppressive humidity. But it was the only day we could do our weeding chores. Above shows the before and after picture. You can surely see why it took two people working hard five hours to clear this one patch. We've only got about twenty more areas that same size to go!