Some Sad Thoughts About Using Roundup (And Why I Do)

A piece about weeds appeared in the New York Times recently and readers erupted when the article's author mentioned the usefulness of Roundup. Granted, many of the respondents are not small farmers; they only have to deal with pests like poison ivy on a quarter-acre lot. 

 Our fence-lines are full of the pesky plant, and we are taking over 1000' feet of fence and growing. That's small by most small-farm standards. Then we have invasive vines and other plants that become "Copperhead Road" in breeding season. That means getting things done before 8am many mornings. We work hard to keep the fences clear. Glyphosate-based herbicides like Roundup keep them that way for a few years, when applied correctly.

Beekeeping was long a concern for us as we battled weeds in the fences; we are winding that down because the summers are simply too hot and the miticides too potent to make us want to work hives in July and August. We'll keep our gear but our last hives will go to a younger beekeeper. For native pollinators we continue to plant for them, and our limited use of herbicide does not occur on plants they frequent.

As for the weeds, Hot water and other organic solutions won't work. A burning torch would, but not if it starts a wildfire. Reluctantly, I began to apply Roundup as directed on the bottle of concentrate, spraying the plants early in the day when the wind is still. 

I'd welcome other solutions that work on the scale of a small farm. Our extension agency was NO help, a biologist suggesting we spray a field we want for native plants with $10,000 worth of Roundup to kill everything and start anew. It would get rid of invasive Stilt-Grass all right, but the environmental and monetary costs are beyond our desire. Instead, we'll bring in Mountain Mint and other plants that stifle the invasive.

 And so it goes in strange times, ones likely to get stranger in years to come.

Image: publicdomainpictures.net 

Weeds And My "Carboard Hack"

One day a former neighbor came by to help with something. He said "I saw you out front weeding around your trees. I like your cardboard hack!" In short, I was putting broken-down boxes around our plantings and covering them with mulch.

Experienced gardeners know this trick, but if you don't, here are some pointers I learned. I did this because 1) I have a lot of Chewy boxes delivered 2) I'm a cheapskate and 3) It saves work.

Here are the basics:

1. break down your large cardboard boxes and remove as much packing tape as possible. Don't fret if you miss some. It will come up to the top of the soil later and you can dispose of it.
2. One layer of cardboard works great. If you have wind, weigh down the corners with old bricks or stones until you have the mulch on.
   
3. Spread your mulch of choice. For ornamental plants up front, that means pine-bark mulch. In the garden? Straw, hay we cut, even dried-out weeds that have not set seed.
4. We go a few inches deep in mulch. Here's an area we covered up a bit late, after the weeds had gotten really tall.

This system really cuts weeding in our humid, hot, and too often like this month, smoky summers. You can safely go in and weed around the cleared area. Copperheads often rest in tall grass and weeds near mating season (August in our part of the world). So bring a hoe to check the area first.

The cardboard will be saturated with the first rain and in time becomes permeable. It cools the soil under it and retains moisture. You can get clever and arrange the pieces to channel water into row-crops and other plantings. I just use it to give me paths that are weed-free, so I don't step on a Copperhead. Here's an ideal finished area.

 In the cool months, or when the garden goes fallow, we let in the chickens. They demolish mulch and cardboard in a few days, eat any remaining bits of plants, and they hunt for bugs. I don't even have to clean up. Any leftover tiny cardboard scraps, save for stray packing tape, disappear after 8 months or so. 

You can find expensive and labor-intensive alternatives. Weed-block fabric works fine for a year, but we'll never use it again. Wire-grass and some other invasive weeds set their runners into the fabric, locking it in place. I had to use a reciprocating saw to cut it out. Black plastic is not permeable but it does block weeds. We have used it in a few spots and covered it with gravel. 

Cardboard does not have the problems outlined above. Give it a go, and save yourself a recycling trip in the process.

 

 

No Till? I Think Not.

I've been fascinated by small-scale successes with no-till gardening, such as lasagna gardening, but so far on our little farm, it is simply not working for commercial growing. I have 7000 square feet of raised beds now, and more on the way. In time, however, I will greatly reduce tillage. I cannot even fathom how my friend Dominic would manage 3 acres without tilling. He uses a cultivator on a row-crop tractor.

In my case, the tractor goes into the field once, when I first busted the sod. First I plowed, then harrowed. To get raised beds ready, I tilled, then amended the soil before planting and mulching. Since we use no herbicides, the weeds still creep in, particularly Cynodon dactylon, AKA wire grass, AKA Bermuda Grass and, yes, AKA Devil's Grass. It grows up and through the wire mesh we keep around our raised beds and colonizes new areas but growing roots from its runner through layering.

You cannot get rid of it without chemicals. On our patio, far from our food, I do spray Roundup on calm days. I've used it concentrated and carefully for years on stumps of Tree of Heaven.

In the garden, however, poison is out of the question. So I reach for the tiller whenever I replant a bed.

Wire grass can be reduced or even killed by shade, but that's no help in a sunny vegetable garden. Some plants form a dense canopy, such as sweet potatoes or our big crop of Thai Peppers, but the wire grass is still around, biding its time even under 6 inches of wheat straw mulch.

We own two tillers, a walk-behind with rear tines and forward and reverse gears. It's a beast. I use it for new beds or those badly overgrown by wire grass. For other beds during rotation, I use a handheld tiller to break the weeds' hold on the soil, then rake out with a for-tine cultivator or field rake. I then add amendments, usually four parts of our homemade compost, one part rock dust, one part fireplace ashes. That yields the holy trinity of gardening: Nitrogen, Rock Phosphate, Potassium.

I call this method "low till" and it does keep weeds manageable.  I try never to till too deeply.

But who wants to live on a golf course? No one that I'd want to drink with. Or have as a neighbor.

My method of low-till cultivation has kept weed pressure manageable, though I have to go around after rain and pull long runners of grass out of and around our beds.

Nature will win this battle in the long run. So be it. Wire grass is excellent in lawns and shakes off drought and even dog-urine attacks that leave brown circles in our field.