A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum garden full of weeds

hi - we just moved into a new house. the back yard is overgrown with weeds. so i'm thinking of sheet mulching to control the weeds - i'm all about organic. from what i've been reading i won't be able to plant in it for a year or more if i do. is this true? am i too late to do much this year? my hope is to get the plot ready for spring planting next year. any and all advice welcome....thanks..sam

Hey-- If you just moved into a *new* house-- as in the house is new, and you want to plant a garden, you may have bigger problems than weeds. Again, if new, most contractors throw down the cheapest of the cheap dirt and then "seed" it with "contractor's mix", the cheapest of cheap seed, filled with weeds. If this is the case, check to see what your soil looks like before worrying about the weeds.

If by "new" you mean "new to you", then do you know what kind of weeds? Annual or perennial?

Marica

It could work by next spring...depends how bad it is. If you cut the weeds down first and lay them flat and then put LOTS of layers and mulch it will degrade quicker...some weeds will live no matter what so those that do come back will need to be hand destroyed.

How large is the place you want to sheet mulch?

my house had been vacant for almost 2 years and was way overgrown. We cleaned up slate and rock and dead plants and weeds and brought in dirt and tons of mulch and put down newspaper to keep out weeds (still do this some) and I planted all along. It's turned out pretty good.

I put down the black cloth to prevent weeds, and put red lava around .. Loved it. No what happened......Moles are digging holes and throwing dirt in top..Must eat holes in the protector.

Makes one angry........

oh jeepers. Do the moles eat your plants?

Oh sorry about that. I think I just hijacked the post.

so samcat, it you don't have moles can you get some type of green cover to put on your weeds and smother them to death?

i don't know?????/Our cat ate one of them.

bought paper liner for weed control........Guess it isnt mole control..

just new to us...not a new house by any means. we've got a pretty wide variety of weeds out there. i did just get some advice about using vinegar as a home made herbicide. the info out there gets a bit confusing. one site states that i could be damaging the soil and may not be able to plant anything in it for two years??? i've done sheet mulching on a farm but this is my first inner city garden. on the farm we had huge piles of compost and chicken poop at our disposal. ho-hum...the good ole days. help and advice is much appreciated...sam

I just read in a farm book........Put clear plastic over the weeds and it will kill clear down to the roots.......Let it for 6 weeks..........I was gonna try.

or you can do what I did today, just flatten the whole thing with a run away mower

dodge, I think sam wants to use biodegradable stuff or stuff that's good for the enviroment, which plastic isn't.

I did put a big plastic tarp down on one of the garden sites one year and held it down with bricks and big rocks all winter. I pulled it up to reuse it in the spring. It killed everything under it. I piled it high with compost the next spring and planted cucumbers. It worked great.

ok

I have done it too............They did say clear kills it further.
Your pretty nifty for a nurse.......... :ding:

I'll have to try that, I did an old carpet I was tossing out one year, layed it down and let it kill everything planted my garden there the next year

Sure .I used cardboard for the same idea...........
Open them and lay flat.......

Watch out, sometimes there are mice living under the cardboard and making a nest with shredded newspaper.

I don't care if I have mice under there. They run away when you move the stuff or the cat gets them. I just don't want them in my house. Can't stand the critters.

dodge has a point about the clear plastic. You cut the weeds down to the ground and compost them. then you water the area well and put down the plastic and cover the edges with dirt. Then you wait 6 weeks while the sun cooks the weeds and top 1-2 inches of soil. I see you are from Portland. You get much sun up there? If not, this method might not work very well for you. Horticultural(sp) vinigar works well on living weeds, but not on the seeds in the ground. I hear corn gluten works as a pre emergent (won't let seeds sprout) but you have to put in live plants if you want to grow anything there.


Good luck.

one thing before you get started. Take a close look at the "weeds", some of them might be worth keeping (wildflowers ect.).

Geez, this early spring remember when I told you about the transport losing the load of mulch? Well, B-I-L brought me 5 bags and I put them on the corner of the lawn, they stayed there for a month....well the grass is still dead there. I had to reseed the area...trust me plastic works.

Plastic DOES indeed work. I've used it here but it never goes away. Even with plastic weeds can show up everywhere. We put plastic on our little hill and if there was a tiny opening at an edge weeds/grass would start sticking out from under it. In my yard grass grows better in the vege garden than on the lawn.

I pulled grass from flower beds all afternoon yesterday, they look so much better now

oops...


I forgot to mention...


You take up the plastic after the six weeks, it's just there to kill the weeds.

Great idea, geez I have to take out the carpet rug in my bedroom this fall to put down new floor. Maybe I'll lay it out on the lawn before winter...I wanted to start another new strawberry bed. And the 12 by 14 size would be ideal.

if you put down garbage bags first, it works great been there, done that

they work really well for that makes a nice square garden area

I heard about the newspaper things....What do you do?

HI TAMARA......YOur back with us again..
any snow yet?

Place newspaper 3 or 4 sheets thick and water over it so it stays in place. If you have a lot of wind you'll need to throw a few rocks on top of it to keep it from blowing away. The only thing about newspaper is it has to be replaced time after time but if you want to be green it's better than anything else.

I need to find an old carpet and toss out so I can do a nice tomatoe patch next spring

they have picked the cotton behind my house maybe I'll feel better soon. I gotta get some plants drug in today temps are suppose to drop today

Cant find a carpet, use plastic or cardboard........

are you on drugs? or are you really planting drugs?

maybe shes giving the drugs to the plants?

*L* yeah I took some and shared with my plants

told y'all I'd been sick

Are you or the plants sick????????

Who is plant doctor on here?////////

Does tilling kill them, or do you still need newspaper???

Tillin isnt killin.

Drugs are willin........to killin..

You will get billin, from Willin.

Had enough?

I was wondering today why the freezing cold and snow kills everything except the weeds.

PS you still need newspaperEva.

Sheri,

Thats a question I ask myself every year when I am so busy pulling the idiots?

I not know.

b

now the snow is melting my yard is full of that oat stuff that comes every year. I hate that stuff.