How I cut my weeding time by 75%

The weed issue around here is out of control seriously. I spend a great deal of time every day working on getting rid of the weeds on our couple of acres and I never seem to get ahead.

Slowly …. oh so slowly, I am figuring out ways to reduce the weeding time. Most of the things I come up with help a little bit, but there is one thing that I have discovered that reduces my weeding time by about 75%

In the springtime when I am planting my garden, there is one thing I must do or else my entire garden gets taken over by weeds and my poor little veggies get smothered.

I churn my beds, rake them out nice, plant my stuff, set up my watering system, and then ………….

 

I BURY THE ENTIRE THING IN MULCH! Grass clippings to be exact, because that’s what I have a ton of.

Obviously I leave my plants sticking out, with a few inches around them free of debris, but every other tiny piece of dirt in the grow box gets covered with a thick blanket of mulch.

And by thick, I mean several inches. It has to block out every ray of sunshine that might penetrate the mulch. Lucky for me, I have an enormous lawn so the grass clippings need somewhere to go anyways.

This actually does more for your plants than just keep the weeds down. It serves as insulation basically and regulates the temperature of the dirt a little better. It holds the moisture in a bit so your plants don’t dry out so quickly. It also looks nice because you have clear pathways through your garden to walk on that never have any weeds.

 

Small lawn, no grass clippings? That’s okay! Any type of mulch will work as long as you put it deep enough to block all the sunlight and smother the weeds.

Newspaper

Cardboard

Wood Chips

Leaves

Straw

Basically any organic material will work.

 

When I find the time to do this at the beginning of the year, it cuts my weeding time by so much that it’s laughable when I don’t do it.

I think to myself, “Self! You complain about not having enough time to put the mulch down, and then spend the rest of the summer weeding ten times the amount you would have! Now that is wasting time.”

If I don’t mulch, I weed the same grow box every other week. If I do mulch, I weed 2, maybe 3 times the entire summer! See what I mean??? It’s laughable when I don’t do it!

[wp_ad_camp_4]

Don’t make the same mistake I do! Mulch the whole flipping garden and you won’t even have to think about weeds for weeks at a time!

If your still not convinced, or maybe you have the same problem I do of putting it off and putting it off, then click on over to my other post about weeds-

Which plants can handle the weeds, and which ones just can’t

and check out this video to show you just how easy it is to make a low maintenance garden 

And if you have any useful tips for me to improve my weeding strategy PLEASE leave a comment and help us all out!

~Farmer’s Wife