Organic Gardening For Dummies, 2nd Edition by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

Avoid using flamers in windy or dry conditions, especially if you live in an arid region. Keep a hose or other water source handy to douse unexpected flames.

176 Part IV: Growing Organically in Your Yard and Garden Figure 11-2:

Propane-

powered

flamers are

especially

effective

against

weeds.

Flamers use a nonrenewable resource, propane, to generate the heat.

Gardeners striving for a sustainable landscape may want to limit the use of propane, which is a fossil fuel.

Pulling and cultivating

Good old-fashioned hand pulling and hoeing aren’t among gardeners’ favorite garden chores, but they work, especially if you follow these two basic rules:

✓

Disturb the soil as little as possible. This first rule is really important, because many weed seeds lie dormant in the darkness just under the soil surface. When you churn up the soil, you expose the seeds to the light and air they need to sprout and attain pest status.

✓

Get them while they’re small. Small weeds with fragile roots and stems take little effort to destroy. Large weeds take more work, disrupt more soil, and potentially contribute to the seed population in your soil if you leave them long enough to go to seed. Also, the longer the weeds live, the more water and nutrients they rob from your food and landscape plants.

Weeding techniques

If you’ll be pulling by hand, moisten the soil thoroughly first, preferably the day before so that the soil can drain. The weeds will be much easier to pull and you’re more likely to get the whole root than you would in dry soil. You can leave small pulled weed seedlings in the garden to decompose; remove larger ones to the compost pile.

Weed your garden in sections. When you complete a section, immediately cover the soil with a layer of organic mulch to prevent more weeds from

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