 |
| Mowing the Chickweed and Bittercress |
 |
| Orchard in the background |
 |
| Mowed. Stems clog the tiller if I don't mow first |
 |
| This is about 1/3 of the "fenced garden" or about 1400 square feet. |
 |
| Tilled. Now I need to give the soil organisms time to digest the vegetation before tilling again. |
 |
| On to the next "patch" |
May I suggest consideration of an experiment. Black plastic — a sheet 100 by 50 feet, held down with sand bags. We seed a cover crop of fall rye right after vegetable harvest, then in the spring, once the rye is 7 inches or so tall, cover with agricultural silage cover plastic. Four or five weeks of cover weakens the rye for easy tilling. It also keeps the soil dry enough to till right after a rain. The fibrous rooted rye adds a lot of organic matter to the soil and halts the weed seed cycle.
ReplyDeleteI look at my plastic as a tool investment. I have pieces that are over 30 years old.