Learn How To Keep Weeds Out Of Your Garden
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Things are finally coming together with our move and I wanted to share some really helpful information on how to keep your garden virtually weed free.
Until our current gardening season, we have always used techniques offered in "Lasagna Gardening" by Patricia Lanza. However, with the likelihood of moving during the garden season and having to adapt to gardening with containers, has made it a bit difficult to apply many of the suggestions of this method. So I began the process of figuring out just exactly how I can keep the garden weed free using containers.
What I'm about to share will work with both gardening in the ground (which we usually do anyway) as well as container gardening.
At this time, due to our need of moving during the gardening season, all of my plants are in large white buckets. So getting the garden ready was actually a bit easier this season. The first step is to cut all of the grass down very low. This can be done with a weed eater or lawn mower. With the weed eater, you can essentially cut it down to the dirt and it will work beautifully. Though this step is not 100% necessary, it does make the next step more pleasant looking. Then use "BLACK" landscaping fabric or weed-block and roll it out in the areas you want to place your plants. I also found this fabric at Home Depot for about $35 per 4 foot by 220 foot roll. Make sure to leave adequate space between rows of the fabric and also make sure it is the "Black" form and not the "Gray"! I tried the gray last season and it doesn't block the light, so it promotes the growth of grass and weeds, under the landscaping fabric.
At this point, you can either mark where you want to place plants in the ground or simply place your containers on top of the fabric. If placing in the ground, slice large X's in the spot for each plant. Dig your hole, put in your organic materials, fertilizer, bone meal etc in the hole and place the plant to where the stem is at the center point of the X. If placing containers, simply set the containers where you want them.
Now between rows, tramp the grass down or cut it with the weed eater or mower and place news paper in between the rows of black landscaping fabric. Overlap the news paper over the top of the edge of the fabric, completely covering the entire area between fabric sheets. Water the news paper to make it moist and then spread with saw dust, wood shavings or other form of mulch like bark, cut straw or hay, over the top of the news paper. Be sure to cover it completely. These will become your walkways.
Now you have virtually a weed free gardening area for your plants to thrive.
Happy Gardening :)
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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