On 7/17/2017 6:32 AM, songbird wrote:
wrote:
...
Don't know what kind of weeds you have, but leaving just a tiny part
of the root of a Plantain or Dandelion a;llows it to grow back quitr
vigorously, and twirch grass is almost impossible to kill permanently
- even with chemicals. Knotweed is another real bugger, along with
Black Medic and "creaping charlie"

i don't actually consider any of those weeds
in the grassy places that we mow.

in the mulched places, any significant population
of weeds starting is an indication that the mulch
needs to be redone (cleaned out or replaced).

for woody mulches like the OP has described the
method i use is to scrape off the top layer of
less decayed wood chips and then remove all the
rest down to the weed barrier fabric. those make
excellent garden food.

a quicker way, if you don't mind things stacking
up is to put down a few layers of cardboard and
then put the wood chips over them (but it has to
be deep enough to actually cover). eventually
the cardboard decays but by them most weeds are
smothered.

i just redid an area about 4 sq meters and it
took less time than it would to weed or flame a
few times. won't have to touch it for a few more
years now. while i'm at it i usually put old
news papers and other papers under there so i
don't have to bother feeding them through the
shredder.

after another few rounds of this i'll scrape
it out and use it as garden food.

for the stone mulched areas that get a lot of
plant debris dropped on them the best answer when
they get a lot of weeds popping up is to take it
all up and screen out the crud and replace it.

i've always thought that a good invention for
a lawn service would be a vaccuum, screener,
replacer unit all in one so you could just go
along and get it done, just empty the hopper of
crud when it gets full...


I just finished setting up a worm composting box. I wanted to get rid of
a pile of paperwork and didn't want to have to shred it all, so anything
that had text on it with identifying info I layered in one cardboard box
and sprayed each layer with water. A second cardboard box I just tossed
in papers that didn't have identifying info on it and lined the bottom
of that box with it. I also wrapped both boxes with some packing tape
to give it some extra support allowing it to not fall apart as quickly.

I had a spot in a flower bed I hadn't planted anything in this summer,
so I set up this composting box there. First I layered a bunch of
kindling type sticks in an area just a little bigger than the box, and
then put the second box on top of it. Then I filled that box with more
kindling and small branches to the top of it so it would help support
the weight of the first box.

I stacked the first box lined with wet papers that had the identifying
info on to on top of the box filled with kindling and branches. Then I
added a nice layer of kindling on top of the papers, went around the
yard and dug up some worms, different sizes, and added some soil and
worms on top of the sticks. I kept adding worms and soil 'til it was
about half full and then started adding a combo of soil and
compost/broken sticks til it was full.

The plan is to keep adding worms to it and as they compost the debris
and make worm castings it'll begin to rot the paper at the bottom,
absorb the castings liquid and eventually drip down into the box under
it rotting out the bottom of the top box and eventually the entire
set-up will fall apart in that flower bed.

When that happens, I just collect the plastic packing tape that I used
to wrap around the boxes for support, and spread out the compost in the
same flower bed.

It's an experiment, so, if it works, I can do the same thing with other
beds, too.


--
Maggie