Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Aliza Vanderlip <songbird97520@yahoo.com>]

Speaking of weeds - I have a problem with cheeseweed/malva.  Anyone know what kind of an indicator it is in terms of the soil?  Its only an issue for me in my garden beds - I love to have it around because the painted lady butterfly larvae love it but hate it in my heavy clay soil in my veggie patch.  I realize it will eventually go away but somehow I never get it all out of or near the bed before it starts to bloom and once it blooms the little heart shaped cotyledons pop up and if I dont get them right away it is a mess and hard to pull because the roots are soooooo long:o(

Any suggestions or information about this plant - short of keeping up on my weeding LOL - are really welcome.

Blessings,

Aliza


“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

--- On Mon, 11/29/10, Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] roto crutch
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Monday, November 29, 2010, 5:03 PM

There are weeds and you kill them by tilling. Tilling brings up a new set of seed so you start over.  After 1-2 years of no till there will be few weeds. You stop bring up the weed seed.  In our garden we had six beds, 6 ft x 70 ft. and it took me 15 minutes a week to pull all the weeks.

Produce what you are producing now.

 

VA:  I'm a left-over from the original soils list, was converted then to no-till but I'm still learning.  Had our first hard frost last night, but I was prepared with the help of Coleman's "Four-Season Harvest".  Our beds produce year 'round, never mono-crop, mostly volunteers.  Amazingly simple.  My 99 year old mother, who grew up on a Michigan farm, is still shocked at how well this works.  Even with last winter's 6 feet of snow.  Tom Vincent

 

Ken 

 

--- On Mon, 11/29/10, moon@ceva.net <moon@ceva.net> wrote:

From: moon@ceva.net <moon@ceva.net>
Subject: [Livingontheland] roto crutch
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, November 29, 2010, 10:00 AM

Hi Ken,
I'm hooked on equip. Would be a joy to not depend on it. Especialy as fuel gets more dear. I often topdress a bed w/ composted horsepoo and sawdust, then till it in. seems like more gain then loss. What do you produce w/ no-till?
I also have sandy river botton, I spread manure and leaf mold, use a falk spader and bury it w/ all the weeds for garlic, and summer vege bed prep. Even in my small garden, a 3pt hitch rorotiller can bury all the frost bit basil and mulch and fortify the bed w/ org matter while cleaning up for reseeding. Looks great,like choc cake.
Is this evil in the no-till notebook? . Is the worm count the final jury?
How else to manage? Too much to fork, too many weeds, weed skeletons and 1/2 rotted mulch seems sinking them under helps. Midseason, in Va, the weeds are so fierce I can only cultivate w/ a sm cultv tractor to keep the comp down. too much to mulch. I have fabric for my peps,squash and tomas.
You can let the DVD answer.
Thanks, Ann zone 7

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.


_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland