From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   Frank Miles wrote:   
   > What's the magic trick to dealing with weeds if you want to garden   
   > 'organically' _and_ are trying to go 'no-till' ?  That is, without   
   > spending all your time manually pulling them?  And with limited   
   > space I can't solarize without losing a year.   
   >   
   > Thanks for any tips!   
   >   -F   
      
     stirrup hoe, good control of the area around the garden.  like   
   a deep enough edge to prevent weeds from intruding underneath   
   and a wide enough pathway around to keep a lot of things from   
   flopping over and dropping seeds in.   
      
     note that this doesn't prevent all weeds and it will take   
   several years to get rid of the seed bank in any newly   
   cultivated garden, but after several years it does get   
   easier once you understand how it goes.   
      
     we keep about an acre of gardens here with using the   
   stirrup hoes and no-till or low-till organic techniques.   
      
     but you have to use the hoe, it goes quick to just   
   skim the surface.  closer work near the garden plants   
   may need to be done by hand or i use a large steak   
   knife with a wooden handle or a small mason trowel.   
   the sooner you get the weeds the easier it is.   
      
     as summer gets on the garden plants get bigger and   
   crowd out more weeds from sprouting as easily but again   
   you cannot let things go.  just work on a schedule and   
   go through all gardens in rotation.   
      
     i keep things as simple as i can here, but we have   
   a lot of decorations and small gardens that are more   
   work too.  so if you can plant a bigger area it is much   
   easier with fewer edges and obstacles.  i also plant   
   the pathways once i'm done planting the bigger plots   
   if i have space for something.  i'd rather grow some-   
   thing in a space than leave it bare.   
      
     green manure and cover crop as much as you can.   
   peas and beans are yum.  :)   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)