Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Gloria Baikauskas <gcb49@flash.net>]

One of the best ways to smother out the weeds is to use the lasagne method for gardening.  It begins with a layer of wet newspaper, or wet cardboard which deters plant growth beneath it.  Use at least 4 layers of wet newspaper...but one of cardboard is sufficient.  Then layer over that with things like leaves, kitchen scraps, grass clippings <if it is not Bermuda grass> and straw.  You can also smother the weeds out using thick layers of straw.  Do not use hay as it has seeds and pickloran <SP?> usually on it.  The last is a broadleaf weed killer that is not good for anyone. 

 

Weeds are not always the enemy.  We have been taught to have neat gardens with no weeds in them.  Yet the weeds help us by breaking up the soil beneath with their strong, long root systems, as well as to repel some insects, and some diseases.  They also provide a place for predator insects to hide to attack the bad ones that decimate our gardens. 

 

Gloria, Texas