I am starting a new garden, a bigger garden. Fully fenced and with drip irrigation I have great hopes for this garden. I did have a little issue with grasses and other plants in this area. I set the pigs and chickens to work clearing the area up. They did a somewhat ok job of it. At least when I threw their food out on the spots I wanted taken care of.
So obviously I still needed to do something about all the remaining vegitation. I started saving newspaper. So, let me tell you about how much that sucks. I tried two different ways of laying the paper down. The second one was much better than the first but still a pain in the butt.
Now, let me remind ya’ll that I’m in Wyoming. It is pretty much never at least a little breezy here. There was a bit of a breeze while I was laying this paper down and trying to get it wet before it would blow away was driving me a bit nuts. Plus while I’m spraying it down and trying to flatten it it’s ripping and basically making me regret my life decisions.
Then comes the issue of planting through the paper. That was a pain in the butt as well. Some of the planting turned out ok. The paper remained in tact enough to still be a sufficient weed barrier. With others it just crumbled and became useless. Frustrating!
I carried on and planted all of the cabbage and celery. Then mulched over the top with wood chip bedding.
Will let you know how this works out for me. I’ll do a separate post on my other newspaper method.