Market Farming

[Benjamin Shute <benjamin AT heartyroots.com>]

On our 20 cultivated acres we sow dutch white clover and perennial ryegrass between our plastic mulch beds (which are flat beds not raised beds).  We mow them regularly--  when we were using a cheapo push lawn mower we needed to mow almost weekly or else the weeds would get big enough that it would be a nightmare to mow.  Now we have a walk-behind string trimmer that lets us mow once every two weeks, and can do a good job getting the weeds that sneak up next to the edge of the mulch because the string trimmer can reach over the edge without tearing the plastic (usually).

I know of a large organic veggie farm that straw mulches between plastic mulch, but they have large equipment to make their own straw and to shred it into the paths.  They still end up hand weeding their paths when weeds poke through.  But they also say they get a huge fertility boost in following years from the contributions of the straw.  

--Ben

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Hearty Roots Community Farm
P.O. Box 277
Tivoli, NY 12583
(845) 943-8699