I have nothing underneath the first raised bed I made last year, & weeds did eventually make their way up.
My new ones this year I put down several layers of newspaper. Guess I won't know for a few months whether it did any good, but I had the paper anyway, so it didn't cost me anything except...
Wow, do they still make that stuff?? That's a blast from my childhood in MI! Everyone would smear it around their oak trees to catch the green inch worms. Nothing worse than playing hide-and-seek & accidently sticking your hand into a band of Tanglefoot full of inch worms!! :sick
Sorry...a bit...
I know this will sound strange, but we've been trying to burn the thatch in our Bermuda grass for the past week - & the darn stuff won't burn!! There have been grass fires all over the state, just from people throwing out their cigarette butts...but we try burning some grass on purpose, and nix...
It's days like this, vfem, that I remember why I moved to NC in the first place! :D
Did my carrots last weekend. Planted my spinach & lettuces yesterday, & will start on the strawberries this afternoon! :ya
That's interesting, hoodat. This will be my first attempt at carrots in many, many years. So - stupid question - do you water through the paper? Or lift the paper, water carefully every few days, & keep the paper (like a mulch) on until sprouting?
What's the old saying - "Man makes plans & God laughs"...? :/
I feel your pain, altho I haven't had that exact thing happen to me, I am very anal & need to know what/where everything is.
If it's any consolation, I am currently looking for red leaf lettuce seeds, to no avail. The closest I come...
DH & I spent the afternoon buying a yard of soil/compost at the landscaper, & shoveling it into 2 of my new raised beds! I'm exhausted & my hands are sore & cramped up, but I'm EXCITED!!! :ya
(A "yard" of dirt is a LOT more than it sounds. :/ )
I would be intimidated too, vfem...I want a pressure canner, but I picture myself wearing one of those heavy suits that the bomb squad people wear...walking up quietly to the stove with a riot shield in front of me, scared to death the thing is going to explode in my face!! :lol:
I have a feeling I'll be trying at least a couple different methods. I saw a video on youtube where the guy just made a sort of cylinder of chicken wire or welded metal fencing (can't remember which now), just kept piling compost & leaves as the plants grew up. He made it look easy, anyway. ;)...
You know, this will be my first year growing potatoes, & the more I read the more confused I get!! :/ For every method someone swears by, there's another post why it shouldn't be done that way (it seems). :barnie
Oh, my BIL/SIL love me already, since I make them save all their scraps for my compost & their pickle jars for my sprouting farm! :lol:
But lesa, I gotta ask...your lettuce comes in plastic containers where you live...?? :hu Just trying to picture that...