Advice needed. I’m looking to reclaim this old garden area. Roughly 30’x70’. Thick with horse tail and other weeds. I know it will be a process but do I spray or till?
Advice needed. I’m looking to reclaim this old garden area. Roughly 30’x70’. Thick with horse tail and other weeds. I know it will be a process but do I spray or till?
What’s in the mound in the middle? I would mow it first, then plow it
Torpordoor
You could do those things but you could also just mow it and bury it. Get a load of good compost and a load of woodchips. Make 6”deep rows of compost for beds and 6”deep woodchips for aisles and perimeter. You can lay cardboard down first if you want but it isn’t entirely necessary as long as you are over 6” of material above it. Some people like to till right before burying the existing ground as well but that’s also not necessary.
Do it in the fall and it’ll be plantable next spring, then by the following spring, you’ll have immensely improved soil biology and fertility. All that plant material will break down. The soil will be light and fluffy under the woodchips and not so easily compacted as it will be if you just till or spray. This means better drainage and root growth. It means beneficial fungi which increase the bioavailability of nutrition to your plants. Sheet mulching conditions soil.
If you dont have a good compost source, or budget doesn’t allow it, you can sheet mulch the entire thing in woodchips alone, then just clear out little spots where you want to plant and add compost to the small clearings as needed.
This may seem like more work. Up front it is, but it’s actually much less work in the long run and ensure excellent soil. The other two methods kill soil biology and create perpetual opportunity for new weeds to sprout which you will then be fighting every growing season to infinity.
I promise you will not regret burying the seed bank.
One-EyedLarry
Neither!! Mow it down and then place black poly tarps over it for a few months, over the winter works great.
This will not only kill the grass and weeds on top, but the heat and dampness under the tarp will cause all dormant seeds to sprout and the die, leaving your area weed free for the next year. Additionally, this will prevent oxidation and disruption of mycelium and positive bacteria life in the soil, and the dead weeds and grass will provide nice hummus for the life within that soil.
J.M. Fortier has some great resources on this. Check out his YouTube or his book “The Market Gardener”.
JoyfulNoise1964
I would mow it down and then turn it over
Accomplished-Wish494
Put up a fence and raise a round of pigs. Tilled and fertilized for you, and bacon in the freezer.
If not, I’d mow it as short as I could get it and then do Back To Eden (later of cardboard then compost, then mulch)
poiuyt_qwerty
You can even skip the tilling, mulching, cardboard or poly tarp, as long as you’re willing to play the waiting game a little.
Overseed with aggressive cover crops, let *everything* grow, then cut at the base and plant your crops directly into the green mulch something like 2 weeks after the initial slash. Repeat.
Get lumber wrapping from a building supply store cover the area for an entire year to kill the cover then till and cover
Responsible-Wait-719
Mow – spray – till
nachosandfroglegs
Goats
Mushroomskillcancer
I would mow then place a tarp over the area. if you have access to wood chips and alternative that I like is to place wood chips across the area about 6″ thick.
thestonernextdoor88
I would use the weed Wacker then till.
Standard-Reception90
Why would you put a plant killing chemicals into the same soil you want to grow food in?
hollisterrox
My grandparents had a patch like that, and they had the laziest/most productive garden I’ve ever seen. Grandpa layered hay over it every year, thicker and thicker.
Very little weeding involved and after 5-6 years, there was a super-rich humus layer under the hay. I loved lifting the hay and grabbing as many earthworms as I wanted for fishing. It was just an insanely busy soil down there.
I can’t stress enough how poor the forest soil was around them, it was about 50% rock, 25% clay, 25% sand/decomposed rock. Crap soil, very little grew between the trees.
But their garden was plantable before others (decaying hay warms up?), stayed productive until the bitter end of the growing season, and we were out there every day harvesting everything. So much canning just to keep up!
Mow, then unroll some round bales over the whole thing. Repeat every fall when the plants are done (hay is cheaper in fall than spring)
iloveschnauzers
Horsetail = acid soil, so amongst the other advice, some lime added to the soil would be good.
shiftyslayer22
Niether.. chickens
lorelei072
Horsetail is medicinal and sells for $45/ounce *and you’re going to spray it?!* SMH
most of the top 10 comments solutions are perfectly viable in their own ways. The one thing I would watch for are:
Are there any super crazy aggressive weeds in there? Morning glory, bind weed, kudzu, etc. If it’s something that regrows time and time again from the ground, then you may have different problems with each option.
-tilling a rhizome based weed turns 1 weed into 800 weeds. They regrow so easily from even a hint of fragment. Also, all the blahblah about soil health and fungal networks and blahblah is true, and is disrupted using this method.
-sheet mulching won’t stop bindweed, it’ll burrow through cardboard, AND 6 ft of wood chips; given time.
-black plastic (solarizing) may be the key if something like the above is heavy in your mix.
-There may be something in the mix that the animals don’t like. They won’t take that stuff down.
otherwise, do whichever, and just don’t expect perfection. You’ll still get 5-10% weeds, but that’s an easy couple of minutes a couple of times a week to root out.
SwiftStrider1988
For the love of god, if you want to reclaim it, don’t spray it! Goats might be an option. Till and plant afterwards.
BroodyGaming
So relieved the top comment says neither haha. Good advice there OP. Neither. And if you can’t afford tarps, for me LOTS of cardboard layered with old animal bedding works. Not going to kill weeds to the extent a tarp could but a heck of a lot cheaper.
The idea is just “block the sun long enough all the weeds die now you have good dirt with good bugs and good organic (meaning alive) medium to build up for planting”. There’s lots of clever ways to achieve this goal.
Tilling digs up old weed seeds, it’s a short term solution and a long term headache. And spraying does friendly fire and kills all the good bugs your garden absolutely needs to flourish.
22 Comments
What’s in the mound in the middle? I would mow it first, then plow it
You could do those things but you could also just mow it and bury it. Get a load of good compost and a load of woodchips. Make 6”deep rows of compost for beds and 6”deep woodchips for aisles and perimeter. You can lay cardboard down first if you want but it isn’t entirely necessary as long as you are over 6” of material above it. Some people like to till right before burying the existing ground as well but that’s also not necessary.
Do it in the fall and it’ll be plantable next spring, then by the following spring, you’ll have immensely improved soil biology and fertility. All that plant material will break down. The soil will be light and fluffy under the woodchips and not so easily compacted as it will be if you just till or spray. This means better drainage and root growth. It means beneficial fungi which increase the bioavailability of nutrition to your plants. Sheet mulching conditions soil.
If you dont have a good compost source, or budget doesn’t allow it, you can sheet mulch the entire thing in woodchips alone, then just clear out little spots where you want to plant and add compost to the small clearings as needed.
This may seem like more work. Up front it is, but it’s actually much less work in the long run and ensure excellent soil. The other two methods kill soil biology and create perpetual opportunity for new weeds to sprout which you will then be fighting every growing season to infinity.
I promise you will not regret burying the seed bank.
Neither!! Mow it down and then place black poly tarps over it for a few months, over the winter works great.
This will not only kill the grass and weeds on top, but the heat and dampness under the tarp will cause all dormant seeds to sprout and the die, leaving your area weed free for the next year. Additionally, this will prevent oxidation and disruption of mycelium and positive bacteria life in the soil, and the dead weeds and grass will provide nice hummus for the life within that soil.
J.M. Fortier has some great resources on this. Check out his YouTube or his book “The Market Gardener”.
I would mow it down and then turn it over
Put up a fence and raise a round of pigs. Tilled and fertilized for you, and bacon in the freezer.
If not, I’d mow it as short as I could get it and then do Back To Eden (later of cardboard then compost, then mulch)
You can even skip the tilling, mulching, cardboard or poly tarp, as long as you’re willing to play the waiting game a little.
Overseed with aggressive cover crops, let *everything* grow, then cut at the base and plant your crops directly into the green mulch something like 2 weeks after the initial slash. Repeat.
Weed the soil. Mow closely, solarize, till. You’ll be glad you did. [https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html)
Weed the soil. Mow closely, solarize, till. You’ll be glad you did. [https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html)
Is that gonna get enough sun?
Get lumber wrapping from a building supply store cover the area for an entire year to kill the cover then till and cover
Mow – spray – till
Goats
I would mow then place a tarp over the area. if you have access to wood chips and alternative that I like is to place wood chips across the area about 6″ thick.
I would use the weed Wacker then till.
Why would you put a plant killing chemicals into the same soil you want to grow food in?
My grandparents had a patch like that, and they had the laziest/most productive garden I’ve ever seen. Grandpa layered hay over it every year, thicker and thicker.
Very little weeding involved and after 5-6 years, there was a super-rich humus layer under the hay. I loved lifting the hay and grabbing as many earthworms as I wanted for fishing. It was just an insanely busy soil down there.
I can’t stress enough how poor the forest soil was around them, it was about 50% rock, 25% clay, 25% sand/decomposed rock. Crap soil, very little grew between the trees.
But their garden was plantable before others (decaying hay warms up?), stayed productive until the bitter end of the growing season, and we were out there every day harvesting everything. So much canning just to keep up!
Mow, then unroll some round bales over the whole thing. Repeat every fall when the plants are done (hay is cheaper in fall than spring)
Horsetail = acid soil, so amongst the other advice, some lime added to the soil would be good.
Niether.. chickens
Horsetail is medicinal and sells for $45/ounce *and you’re going to spray it?!* SMH
https://store.thegrownetwork.com/collections/oral-health-support/products/equisetum-hyemale-powder
most of the top 10 comments solutions are perfectly viable in their own ways. The one thing I would watch for are:
Are there any super crazy aggressive weeds in there? Morning glory, bind weed, kudzu, etc. If it’s something that regrows time and time again from the ground, then you may have different problems with each option.
-tilling a rhizome based weed turns 1 weed into 800 weeds. They regrow so easily from even a hint of fragment. Also, all the blahblah about soil health and fungal networks and blahblah is true, and is disrupted using this method.
-sheet mulching won’t stop bindweed, it’ll burrow through cardboard, AND 6 ft of wood chips; given time.
-black plastic (solarizing) may be the key if something like the above is heavy in your mix.
-There may be something in the mix that the animals don’t like. They won’t take that stuff down.
otherwise, do whichever, and just don’t expect perfection. You’ll still get 5-10% weeds, but that’s an easy couple of minutes a couple of times a week to root out.
For the love of god, if you want to reclaim it, don’t spray it! Goats might be an option. Till and plant afterwards.
So relieved the top comment says neither haha. Good advice there OP. Neither. And if you can’t afford tarps, for me LOTS of cardboard layered with old animal bedding works. Not going to kill weeds to the extent a tarp could but a heck of a lot cheaper.
The idea is just “block the sun long enough all the weeds die now you have good dirt with good bugs and good organic (meaning alive) medium to build up for planting”. There’s lots of clever ways to achieve this goal.
Tilling digs up old weed seeds, it’s a short term solution and a long term headache. And spraying does friendly fire and kills all the good bugs your garden absolutely needs to flourish.