Toward a Do-Nothing Gardening, pt. 4: Organic Weed Control (Lazy Gardening)

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When this was a lawn, we had to work very hard to keep weeds under control. Now that it’s a vegetable garden, we do next to nothing. Today I talk about how we turned a high maintenance lawn with a seemingly insurmountable weed problem into a productive low-maintenance vegetable garden where weeds are, at worst, a minor inconvenience. If you shop on Amazon, you can support OYR simply by clicking this link (bookmark it too) before shopping: http://www.amazon.com/?tag=oneya-20 "Weedy" Annuals That Out Compete Weeds: 1) Mustard Greens 2) Arugula 3) Red Orach 4) Amaranth "Weedy" Edible Perennials that Out Compete Weeds: 1) Red Veined Sorrel 2) Egyptian Walking Onions 3) Chives 4) Oregano One Yard Revolution is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost, mulch, and compost tea. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used. Channel Page: http://www.youtube.com/user/OneYardRevolution Join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oneyardrevolution Do-Nothing Gardening Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLApXYvbprElzu8qZpFGWVZ1Q7FxWLFZ2B

Comments

Thanks for the tips. Enjoy your channel. Do you think Johnson Grass weed can be controlled by sheet mulching and additional wood chip/mulching?

And I forgot burdock! Several edible parts at different stages... but the root dug in the fall, sliced and sauted in butter with a dash of Redmond's Natural Trace Mineral salt - delicious! Burdock root sells for around $10/lb at our local food co-op. Not bad for a d'weed'! (RNTMS is pre-pollution sea salt, NOT processed, like Himalayan salt but with far fewer food miles!)

Eating the weeds is the best organic weed control method! The Eat The Weeds channel here on YouTube is another great source of not-intentionally-cultivated edible plant info, as is the website by the same name.Purslane is my favorite vegetable, and is widely cultivated elsewhere in the world as such. I can make an excellent living mulch, too. Chickweed, goosegrass, plantain, clover... all edible and all as tasty as any garden vegetable, if picked at the right time and properly prepared. Some decades ago, a book was written in praise of weeds as companion plants to crops. It goes against our plant segregationist mono-culture mindset... but many weeds do help crop plants to thrive... IF the weeds are not allowed to 'take over'. An interesting concept worth exploring. Thanks for the great videos. Most of the info has been around a looooong time, but your presentation is superb! New crops of gardeners may not have learned from the 'do-nothing' gardeners of the past.

What if your pet or dog urinates on the garden beds/veggies and fruits?

Do you get problems with slugs?

Thanks for sharing!好美的菜園,我會朝你所做的這個方向來經營我的個人菜園.太棒了.

Is the first weed that you pulled at 4:10 poison ivy?

I'd love an answer to this question if you have time! I have just created our garden beds using sheet mulch topped with 6 inches of compost (we have loads of slugs in the UK so stick to compost for the top layer). I have planted perennial veggies and self sowing plants. If I let things go to seed, will adding 1 inch of compost to the top of the beds (probably at the beginning of winter) stop the seeds coming up? Some things like nasturtium and calendula would be fine but I have others like land cress/American cress which I'm not sure about. How do you mulch with self seeding in mind?

Damn your lazy ! I love it :-)

I've heard that cardboard can have glues that may contain harmful chemicals. Is there any truth to that?

You're doing an absolutely fantastic job of your garden with great techniques. YOU! should be the mainstream garden experts, not all of the nonsense that are at the typical garden centres. Thank you for the time and effort you take to bring these videos to the public. A hundred gold stars (out of five) to you!

Good info (as usual!)
The biggest problem I have with weeding is in my perennial beds like my strawberry patch- it is a viney thing called 'Creeping Charlie". I find I can smother it in my annual beds with cardboard, but I'd kill my strawberries with that method.
This weed gets into everything and propagates in many different ways- it is my nemesis.
Do you have any Creeping Charlie mojo that you can share with me?

hey, nice video, thank you for the advice. Do you think sheet mulching would kill large mature thorn bushes and other mature small bushes such as labrador? The thorns I have are about 1/2 inch thick! Best of luck in the future, thank you!

fantastic garden, thanks for sharing :)

You have an excellent voice for communications. Start your own HGTV gardening show.

Great clip as always Patrick.
Mulch is best way for us to feed the soil while suppressing weeds in our patch methinks.
Most of the pesky weeds we get here are marigolds, black mint, yellow current tomatoes & now amaranth thanks to a very informative YT channel ;-)
Cheers mate.

Last year I tried a garden in a new location only to realize the topsoil was maybe 6 inches deep. It holds water a long time when it rains a lot. I was surprised the garden did so poorly because the ground was recently clear cut for wood products - mainly Pine, but some hardwood. Maybe the topsoil is poor and that's why the garden didn't do well. Weeds grow prolifically there. Do you think that same place would do well for the method described in this video? Thanks.

I love this playlist! Thanks for sharing. I think the best way I've heard to describe this approach is "ambitiously lazy." Thanks for the tips on weed control!

gardenlives.com is a great resource that I have used. It offers a lot of useful articles that are easy to read and use.

Thanks for sharing a thumbnail sketch of your approach on how to start a garden!