I’m always on weed patrol. The darn things thrive in our sandy soil, and I can’t walk anywhere without stooping, stretching, pulling or picking weeds as I pass by a patch here and there. This year, I invested (more time than money) to stake down rows of weed blocker in my huge garden. I’ve struggled with how to control the weeds in the garden. They grow extra special and vibrant in the horse poop fertilized soil. In the beginning it worked great. I planted every other row, so I would have walking paths on the plastic.
We had a cool start to spring this year, so there wasn’t much sun to promote weed growth. But once the sun started heating up this summer, the weeds sprouted. So much, they puffed up under the plastic and started choking out my plants. They busted through the seams, and I had to make a decision, to save the plants at the expense of sore muscles.
I spent a total of 6 hours this past week pulling up the weed blocker. For the most part, there weren’t many weeds underneath, but I had waited too long and the weeds had taken hold along the seams. They had poked through the plastic, making it difficult to pull up. It ripped easily, leaving small torn patches of plastic around the roots of each weed. EACH WEED. I had to pull them up and tear them off of EACH WEED. It looks so much better now, and was worth the time. It will be easier for me to maintain the weeds now without the plastic. I believe I earned the title of “Weed Patrol” after all this. Chalk it up to lessons learned. Weed blocker? No thanks!
What are your thoughts on this?