permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

Andrew French wrote:
> I am doing a large scale landscaping project and I just wanted to put this
> question out there to all you permaculture peeps, even though it's probably
> been answered a bunch before.
>
> We usually sodkick and weed the area that we are preparing for the
> paper/mulch treatment. This project we're doing is so large that we're
> considering not weeding, just paper/mulch. There are a lot of dandelions,

Keep the dandelions and just about everything else except Johnson grass, 
Bermuda grass,
redroot pigweed, Pennsylvania smartweed and a few others. Can't you integrate many of the "weeds" into a natural wild 
landscape with berms and swales, bogs, ponds, pools and other water impoundments, adjoining other more controlled areas. 
If its a permaculture landsacape this would be SOP I would think.

> and the soil is very sandy. I was considering flame weeding or a vinegar
> herbicide.

That would be effective in combination with tillage.

> Has anybody done this on a large scale and is it wise to forgo the weeding
> part of the landscaping?

I have done it with 4 acres of farmland using tillage and excavation. You 
will need to get rid of
Johnson grass and Bermuda grass for sure before doing any plantings or 
instaling landscape features such as paths
and erosion control measures such as embankments planted with ground cover, 
perennials or evergreens.

I did landscaping for 16 years before going into vegetable growing so am familiar with weed problems in planned 
landscaping projects and the effect they can have on the finished product and maintenance routines.
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lflj@intrex.net
hillsboroughfarmersmarket@gmail.com
http://hillsboroughfarmersmarket.blogspot.com
Venaura Farm http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com
Agriculture, Market Farming & Permaculture
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech