Farmall Cub

I will not have much time to keep the weeds down between rows like I did in past years with the rear tine tiller.

Would a layer of straw work?

Will the straw help in any way the organic material/nutrient level in the soil?

Any other suggestions?

Yes , Yes but expect a partial crop of oats or wheat. Mo matter low much try not to there is always a little seed left.

Bill

I'm 42yrs old and I just figured out the weed control thing myself. You see these picture perfect gardens ,no weeds at all. well the trick is attack them before they germinate. Don't wait till they come up. In only a few days they are out of control. By keeping the soil tilled by hand or whatever around your plants its lets the top layer of soil dry out thus slowing down weed seed germination. My neibor confirmed that by going out and cutivating often in the bare soil weed growth can be kept under control. IN the past I've always tried to deal with them after I see them. Thats a backwards approach. Deal with them when you don't seem them and its a whole lot easier.

Adding organic mulch is always good for the soil.

When the garden was small, my father used old grocery bags between the rows. Not the plastic kind, but the brown kraft paper variety. Kept the weeds out and moisture in. As the garden grew bigger - about 1 acre - we used straw, grass clippings and moldy hay. Some weeds are nearly impossible to control without herbicides, bindweed comes to mind, but mulching keeps most of the others down.

I started using 2,4-D Amine broadleaf water based herbicide on my troubled spots. Less work now. Tried to go as organic as possible, but you know how that goes....... lots of work!

We farm a bunch of land and use a pre and post herbicide. My wife uses the black weed control stuff and puts a hole and plants right there and never has any weeds. Easy to do with a small plot and she has great sucess. Good luck (ps the weeds only look bad)
capt jack

I think of weeds as plant food for the plants I wish to grow. I pull them and let them lie in the rows as mulch. I also collect all my grass clippings as mulch for the garden. As I have five acres that is a lot of grass. I sure am glad Little Indy and Big Red love to mow.

We've been mulching everything with straw for 3 years now, and in that time we have seen a difference in the soil profile of our garden. The straw does a decent job of keeping the weeds at bay. But the real benefit is in the addition of organic material to our heavy clay. We plow the straw under in the fall, and come spring there is almost NO sign of it. It breaks down very quickly. We then plow and disk in the spring, and have never had a problem with an undesirable crop of oats or rye or whatever.