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Garden Weed Control: My Soil Solarization Experiment

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  I had some major weed issues this last garden season! This last spring  I incorporated two trailer loads of horse manure into my garden  to add organic matter and nutrients to the soil.  While I love what it did for the texture of my predominantly clay soil, there were two pitfalls to my efforts.  First, the  manure had residual water soluble herbicides,  most likely from treated hay, that my source and I didn't realize were present.  (I highly recommend you read the  full story here  before making a decision for or against using manure in your garden.)  Second, and this I anticipated, the manure brought in an abundance of weed seeds that grew with great delight (as you can see in the picture above) until I got a handle on them. There are several ways to eliminate weeds.  I used two of them this summer by  mulching  and physically pulling the weeds, and another was inadvertently added to my garden with the manure, h...
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Weed mat fabric

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  About Us Allotments Our Site Gardening Diary Our Garden Garden Wildlife Sow, Grow & Harvest Recipes Seed and plant suppliers Our Growing Techniques Gardening Equipment Sown/Planted in 2025 2025 Diary 2025 Harvesting Seed & Plant List Friday, August 9 We'll use even more next year. Regular readers can't fail to have noticed that we have used weed control fabric in a big way this year but we have still had some beds uncovered. Where we have used the fabric it has certainly made a big difference. Some weeding has been necessary in the beds where fabric has been used. Weeds still grow around the edges of the bed where the fabric is tucked into the soil and also in the 'trenches' where plants such as onions and carrots are growing in slits in the fabric rather than individual holes. It doesn't take too long to tidy this up especially after a spell of rain.  Compare this, however to the weed growth on a bed where the fabric wasn't used. After the short spell...
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Tikar Rumput | Weed Mat

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  Tikar rumput atau weed mat di reka supaya air, udara, nutrien dapat melalui liang²nya. Secara tidak langsung dapat membantu tanah dan tanaman untuk lebih sihat dan subur. Perlu digunakan bersama paku tikar rumput untuk lebih kemas. Kegunaan tikar rumput atau weed mat yang lain antaranya ialah : 1. Mengawal / mencegah pertumbuhan rumput rumpai samada di kebun, halaman rumah, nurseri, ladang dan sebagainya. 2. Kurangnya rumput rumpai bermakna kurangnya penggunaan racun rumpai. 3. Alas tanah untuk landskap / nurseri / rumah, ladang dan lain². 4. Mengawal perosak yang berasal dari tanah atau yang menghuni rumput rumpai. 5. Tidak menakung air yang sangat sesuai untuk sistem fertigasi sebagai alas tanah. Diperbuat dari plastik poly ethylene ( PE ) yang tahan lasak, tahan koyak & fleksibel Yang ini dipotong panjang 6 meter untuk halaman rumah Lebar 2 meter Dilipat supaya sesuai dengan lebar di kehendaki Perlu gunakan paku tikar rumput untuk lebih kemas Video ringkas tikar rumput ata...
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How to prevent weeds without using plastic weedmat

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  sustainable living blog Where there is a will there is a way How to prevent weeds without using plastic weedmat Look at all the plastic waste I cleared from just one little section - plastic weedmat left behind by prior owners! In New Zealand, if you don't prevent weeds in your garden (yard) they just might grow larger then you! With all the lovely sunlight pouring down, and rain, the biggest challenge when gardening is helping the right species flourish, as every species crowds in where it can. Unless... Non-breathable plastic weedmat (straight plastic) is not a good choice for preventing weeds for this reason. As a weedmat it soon becomes uneffective anyways, as new soil forms over top of the weedmat as plant matter breaks down on top of it. What you end up with is a sandwich of soil, then a layer of plastic pollution, then more soil underneath (but compacted and straining for oxygen, with no earthworms). A better choice is anything that breaks down, like jute weedmat, or they ...
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