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Thread: Small garden / plastic sheeting for weeds???

  1. #11
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    SouthCentral Oklahoma
    Posts
    5,236

    Re: Small garden / plastic sheeting for weeds???

    Bird, I hope all went well and wish her a full and speedy recovery.

    We had very light snow in various places around here like near Lexington where the mentioned garden is (was?) Temps were predicted for high 20's last night but we only got down to mid 30's at our place. One outside thermometer claimed 34.x and the other 37.x (opposite sides of the house and so on side shielded from the wind some heating from the brick wall interferes a bit.

    If I recall correctly, you can get frost with air temps up to about 37F with clear skies supporting radiative cooling and no wind to provide a flow of "warm" air.

    Regarding mulch, weed barriers and such: I prefer news paper over plastic mulch as it biodegrades. Sawdust and wood chips are OK but you need to compensate for their nitrogen requirements to avoid depleting the soil. I have been thinking of trying shredded paper from our efforts of enforcing personal privacy and security.

    There is no such thing as long term weed free gardening. The best I ever did was in San Diego where I landscaped our front yard. I covered most of it with heavy black plastic with soaker hoses under it on a grid. I topped the plastic with a couple inches of crushed volcanic rock. Specimen plantings were accomplished by sliting the plasctic and inserting a plant (mostly various cacti but some others like Sago Palm etc.) I watered about 3-4 times a year by turning on the water to the soaker hoses. Most rain water ran off. Eventually blowing dust etc will give a weed seed a chance to sprout and take hold but with little dirt for the roots they are super easy to pull up.

    I have tried geotextile as a water permeable weed barrier in gardening but the weave was too course and grass and weeds went right through. Looked terrific for a week or so before failure was obvious. There is some Tyvec geotextile used in leach field applications and such that would probably work a lot better but I haven't personally tried it.

    Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
    "I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

  2. #12
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    2,098

    Re: Small garden / plastic sheeting for weeds???

    Pat, I used to have a paper shredder that was not a cross cut; just strips. Newspaper that we shredded wtih it was the best material I found for nest boxes when I was raising rabbits; much superior to hay. And after use, it got tilled into the garden.

  3. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    central minnesota
    Posts
    156

    Re: Small garden / plastic sheeting for weeds???

    still like raised beds. Easier to show off with paths for people to walk on.
    No fun, change the rules!!!

  4. #14
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    5
    You are composing about nasty compost. If you use a black shade, it will keep down the fresh mushrooms. If you use clear it will not.
    As far as irrigating, you can put down a soaker garden water hose under the nasty or water with a landscape sprinkler, the water will go down where the vegetation are placed or leech down through the edges.

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