weed management

We do not spray herbicides to manage weeds. Instead we use systems to manage weeds on a long term scale, always working toward becoming more weed free. 

We use many different tools and methods to manage weeds. We use large silage tarps to kill and suppress weeds before planting. After taking off tarps to plant, we let any weed seed germinate, then use a flame weeder to kill them, or pass over the bed with a light collinear hoe. Once the crop is established we hand weed with hands or hoes. We mulch. Sometimes we use landscape fabric for crops that will be in the ground for longer than a decomposing mulch will last such as sweet potato or winter squash. However, we are trying to move toward living mulches like low growing clover or other cover crops that can be grown directly under a cash crop or in the pathways. In certain areas we use cardboard covered with compost or woodchips to smother weeds and add fertility.

The goal is to eradicate any weeds before they go to seed slowly over the seasons, clearing out the weed seed bank in the top layers of the soil and to avoid bringing up new weed seed stored deeper in the soil.

We thank our weeds for doing their job of keeping the soil covered and we try to see them as a resource. If they are not grasses, or have not gone to seed, we generally use them as a mulch in our pathways as they wilt. We also can make a fertilizing tea from them if we soak them in a bucket of rain water.