Let's talk about Chop-and-Drop?

[baymule]

I liked that video. He did mention using the weeds to make tea for the garden and leaching out the nutrients in the weeds. I like that idea better as whenever I dropped a weed anywhere, it took root again and started growing! Maybe I did it wrong, but weeds got fed to the sheep or pigs. Haha, they like the weed nutrients!

 

[flowerbug]

I liked that video. He did mention using the weeds to make tea for the garden and leaching out the nutrients in the weeds. I like that idea better as whenever I dropped a weed anywhere, it took root again and started growing! Maybe I did it wrong, but weeds got fed to the sheep or pigs. Haha, they like the weed nutrients!

every type of weed might need a bit different treatment. where you are at with the summer heat probably most weeds could be pulled, knock the dirt off the roots and left to bake in the sun for as long as it takes. if there is no rain in the forecast most weeds would be hard-pressed to survive. if they seem to be starting to grow again flip them over and let them bake longer until done.

for us a few of the larger plantains i will pull the leaves off the roots and if i have my old pruners with me i cut the root clump into smaller parts so it will dry out before the plant can reroot itself.

only a few plants i won't try to use as mulch because i really don't like them and i don't want them to drop seeds in the garden. those are the plants that are flowering and will drop new seeds to start new weeds (unless i want them too like some lambs quarters which so far i don't need to do this for because the garden soil seed banks still have lambs quarters seeds that are sprouting). dill, for sure i don't want to drop new seeds and i'm trying to keep the plants from flowering anywhere near any of the more formal gardens. they can drop all the seeds they want out near the lawn where we mow or a few other spots where i can easily scrape them back so they won't bloom again if i don't want those seeds to get spread around again. mouse-eared chickweed is another i don't let spread or survive and the weeds i remove go onto the weed pile for the critters to pick through if they want. this is a hard weed to eradicated from low-growing ground covers like the creeping thyme i am trying to get established to cover the edges of the North Garden - i sometimes have to tease the roots out from among the ground cover and if i don't get them all it will be back until i do find the last bits of roots. i don't play chop-and-drop with those weeds at all there. i bury them instead if i can and if i don't have a good burying spot they'll go onto the weed pile out back.

some of the tougher ones to eradicate are those which grow quickly and drop a lot of seeds. black medic can rapidly take over an area of disturbed soil, but as a legume it is a good nitrogen source so i don't like to waste the plant even after i've pulled it because those nutrients are valuable. what i will do is find all the seeds that are forming and remove them before turning the plant upside down so the roots will dry in the sun. it may take some time but free fertilzer is worth it.

climbing false buckwheat and morning glories or bindweed are hard to get rid of once they've dropped seeds, bedstraw, speedwells and forget-me-nots are also really hard to get rid of. mints of any kind, once they've escaped - we have areas of the lawn with different patches of mints and other weeds. nutsedge at least is pretty obvious a different plant than most lawns so you can see it easily to remove it. just keep at it when you see it to remove it before it can spread to neighboring gardens. that's the hardest thing though is to be consistent enough to keep it from spreading.

through the years you learn what weeds are trouble and remove them when you see them. it takes a huge amount of effort though to remove some weeds after they've already become established. the speedwells are like that here. they are in almost every garden at times and can get spread around. morning glories we've almost managed to finally get rid of, but have to be vigilant for new plants coming up from seeds.

and then there are the thistles... oy...

 

[Phaedra]

About one month, the three pumpkins and two zucchinis are so far happy about their growing environment. I keep chopping and dropping weeds and grasses to cover this area.

They also started flowering.

So, I decided to try the "lazy potatoes" here, too. The candidates are ready for quite a while.

They sat directly on the soil surface, and I covered them with a thick layer of half-dried grass clippings. Let's see.

So, the weeds keep growing, but I spend five minutes weekly chopping them down. So far so good~

I also put two rooted florist's daisy cuttings in a bottomless nursery pot and let them grow here. They are thriving, too. Their roots are already going deep and can't be moved.

So, I will say it's kind of no-dig. A bottomless planter directly sitting on the ground can offer a comfortable environment for a young plant, and we don't need to prepare the ground or even build a raised bed.

This method makes it possible to flexibly utilize the space in the garden at the minimum effort. Of course, many details can be further adjusted for optimization.

For these florist's daisy cuttings, I used a 9cm nursery pot; however, in the hoop tunnel, I used a similar method for tomato, cucumber, and melon plants - the only difference is I gave them 10Liter pots.

 

[Phaedra]

This mixed bed also did very well, so I added another thicker layer of grass clipping this evening.

 

[ducks4you]

I thought I was the ONLY one who did this to my potatoes!!!!

 

[Phaedra]

Another two weeks later, the pumpkins and zucchinis keep growing happily! I keep chop-and-drop weeds, too.

 

[meadow]

All of your plants look so vibrant and healthy! I love that little bit of rainbow glow or 'halo' captured in the last picture, like the garden is a magical place.

 

[Phaedra]

Zucchinis harvested from this chop-and-drop area

The potatoes I buried on June 20th are growing, although I thought they are dead. The earlier batch I buried in the small garden in Cologne didn't work, till yesterday there was nothing. However, the ones here made it.

They are growing with weeds, grass, pumpkins, zucchinis, florist's daisy, blueberry, rhododendron, and Japanese cherry.

Anyway, this is an area where weeding is difficult. The weeds and grass will keep growing, but I will also keep chopping and dropping them. So far, it works well.

I accept the potential consequence of a lower yield - based on that, it's an experiments with much fun.

 

[Phaedra]

Wait a minute...did I accidentally create a Guild?

I learned this word (and concept) just a few days ago, but I did have anchor trees (Japanese cherry and rhododendron), Red clovers as nitrogen fixers/attractors, summer and winter squash as the suppressors, and herbaceous flowering plants as attractors.

I didn't have Repellers, Mulchers, and Accumulators. However, chopped-and-dropped weeds provide a mulch layer. Repellers and Accumulators are not difficult to add - garlic/chive & borage will deliver.

 

[Phaedra]

A just-for-fun experiment

I chopped some leaves from the zucchinis and dropped them on the surface of flower sprouts.

I expect they could play a similar role in keeping some moisture, blocking some weeds, and eventually becoming the food for soil microbes. Anyway, I will add compost to this "sheet" sooner or later.