Gardening

[RobertN]

Thought some might find this interesting. Here is a link to my wifes gardening tips. She is a biologist, Master Gardener, and Landscape Designer. So she puts out useful info that some may find interesting.

Elegant Harvest Landscape Design: enough frogs already?

Elegant Harvest Landscape Design

 

[magicheater]

And so they are! :thumbsup:

 

[stravis]

Some good information there. Thanks for posting.

 

[jimmyj]

Thanks. Interesting point on the landscape fabric. And who would complain about frogs, really!

 

[jeffreythree]

She sure had it right about the landscape fabric. Never again will I put it down unless under stone or rock. I had our evil bermuda grass grow through it from the bottom up and tie it to the ground. Real fun time getting it back up .

 

[forgeblast]

Same here, I had some blackberries push up throug the landscape fabric and take over an area that I though would have been controlled.

 

[dmccarty]

I put down weed block a few years ago and was highly skeptical if it would work. I only tried because it had worked for my parents years ago.

Never again will I use that stuff. I sorta worked. But some of the weeks just poked right through it. It was easy to tear and hard to weed around with a hoe. I put the ashes from the fireplace in the garden. If it is wet outside I would just toss on the planting rows but you cannot do that with the blocker.

Pulled up most of the blocker last season and the rest will go this spring.

Later,
Dan

 

[Chuck52]

I used the blocker when I first started planting fruit trees, but as others have said, the weeds eventually grow through it. What it does do pretty well is keep the good stuff from decomposing mulch from adding to the soil. I'm in the process now of accumulating cardboard and newspaper to use around the trees coming this spring and in the vegetable garden. A couple years ago I put newspaper around my tomatoes and held it down with grass clippings. I had good weed control for that year, but the grass clippings added lots of weed seed. You gotta hold the newspaper down with something, but cardboard stays down pretty good all by itself unless you get strong winds. If it ever gets dry enough here I'll go to the city compost site and buy a truckload for $20 and use that to hold the newspaper down.

Chuck