Daniel Prince <neutrino1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Which would take the least total work, pulling weeds or hoeing?
>snip<
>What is you opinion? Thank you in advance for all replies.
It seems to me that, all else equal, hoeing would produce the
greatest return for time and effort. Although, hand weeding may produce
more thorough and long-term results, scale and urgency of need often
make it impractical. A number of techniques may help you greatly reduce
or virtually eliminate weeding of any sort. For example, organic,
newspaper or even plastic mulches on row crops may greatly reduce
"weeds" as well as eva****ative water loss. Further, one may convert to
wide-row cultivation, raised bed cultivation and/or adapt Bartholemew's
"square foot" doctrine (for example) to his own preferences. Each of
these quickly reduces weeds and may easily lead to "no till" or
"hand-till" veggie gardening.
FWIW: You might even want to re-evaluate the zeal with which you
weed. Unless they negatively affect the vitality of or your ability to
cultivate/harvest the food crop, you might do well to leave the weeds in
place. Their shade reduces eva****ative water losses as well as
germination of future generations. "Weeds" with deep and complex root
systems, if left to continue their life cycles, very effectively reclaim
nutrients that have leached beyond reach of common vegetable plants once
they are added to the garden's compost.
--
Derald
Southern extreme USDA zone 9 (peninsular Florida);
raised beds, containers.
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