Reverse Mulching with Cardboard and Weeds
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- In this video I give a weedy pepper garden a quick "makeover" by pulling the weeds and using them as a mulch with cardboard.
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Thank you for showing us what gardening is really like. Some videos show pristine gardens with no weeds. That’s not real. I procrastinate like you do, and cause myself much more work, but it’s so refreshing to know I am not the only one. I would prefer RUclipsrs show us the real thing so that we know what to do when our gardens become weed infested!
You garden like I do! Leave things lying around to fall over. Lol. I really like how you reduce, reuse, and recycle. People are so afraid of weeds. I’m glad you showed us that you actually can make them useful in your garden. Makes me hate weeds a little less. A little
Thanks man
I do this too but with newspaper or cardboard boxes. It totally changes the task of weeding when the weeds are a resource to help keep the soil cool and moist. I'm finding these techniques absolutely essential here in Southern Ontario.
you need it with that crazy heat :)
@@maritimegardening4887 we've actually not been super hot compared to past years, only 3 or 4 days over 30°c so far! 😉
I’m amazed every time I see a garden in my area that isn’t mulched. Why would anyone want to work so hard as to have to water and weed as much as they’d have to do without it? Mulch is a cheat code.
When I see soil that isn't mulch it looks very exposed. Like seeing a dog in the hot sun.
A lovely share.... thank you 😊 💓
Very difficult in Florida either way. I brought in ten big loads. Had to have neighbor spread with tractor. I had emergency and left for a month. I come back to no mulch..lol
@@oldbattleaxe Wow did it break down that fast?
@@oldbattleaxe l
I actually love to see all the weed challenges you have in your garden...... because thats what i have as well in my garden! This is the channel where i dont need to feel so jealous about the perfect weedless veggie patches 😁
Isn't, that the truth. He is so real.
Greg, you should do a follow up video after something like this so we can see the result a month later
will do
I soaked cardboard in a bucket and that was easy to fit around my raspberry plants. They seem to like it too. I had a shameless chuckle at you tearing out the weeds !
Keeping the weeds in your beds also keeps vital nutrients returned to soil for future planting. This is 1st year growing bell peppers, was blessed with good crop in TN.
I did something similar today. I weeded a partially-mulched flower bed. I left the uprooted weeds (used a hoe) on the patches of bare soil. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot. Those weeds will fry(insert evil laugh here)! Next time I mow the lawn I will mulch those weeds with grass clippings.
I use cardboard to smother grass when I’m building a new bed.
This is exactly what I did last night before bed. As much as I could while the mosquitos tried to have dinner on me.
This weeds faithfully gave you oxygen to breathe, so show some respect--!...
Need cardboard or a barrier, or weeds will take root again. Ask me how I know!
It's an awful thing when one is mulch challenged. My neighbor just weed whacked a big portion of his back yard. Weeds and grass going to seed. I volunteered to take it all. Saved my butt big time. You always come up with a zero cost solution. That's why I watch.
I am by no means a garden guru, but I live in Wisconsin where we sometimes have big windstorms and downed branches. I use cardboard and a stick and leaf chipper/shreader and make the storm damage into mulch on the cardboard. Saves lots on mulch costs.
Good practice! I like that your yard debris stays on site instead of needed to be transported to a composting facility. Weeds are full of nutrients, too. Well done! 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
Very true!
I look forward to an update in a couple weeks. This looks like a great idea!
Thank you for reminding me to mulch my garden
It is a pleasure on a hot day to throw weeds on cardboard and watch them wilt instantly! Bwaaah ha ha! Almost as much fun as squishing slugs
They were all brown and destroyed in 24h :)
My friend with an enormous raised herb garden near Lincoln Ne. Uses throw away carpet scraps for mulch for walk paths, etc. I still want to come up with a system for landscape tarp for the same purpose as your paper. Thanks for the video. It helps not to feel alone battling these weeds though they are just attempting to cool the earth:)
I use old carpet scraps, too. I put the carpet side down so water drains through, but the surface isn't soggy. I've killed off grass that way, too.
Exactly
Some weeds not only are edible but they help retrieve deep minerals out of the earth.
Such a great idea! Isn't that often the way.. we take a shortcut that saves a bit of time, then end up redoing things over and over, taking up much more time than had we just spent those few extra minutes to begin with. Love the reuse of the leaf bags too.
So true!
@@maritimegardening4887 it works beautifully for me here in south Florida.
I cover the cardboard with leaves also as the boxes break down. 3 yrs no weeding!!
I agree! I get in a hurry in the spring and do things quickly, but haphazardly sometimes. I’m so glad he shows us the real thing so we know what to do when we get weeds like this!
The mad grabber 😂
i have weeds like never before too.
they do keep the soil alive
After I harvested all my broccoli I cut off the largest leaves and used them to cover the weeds around my peppers. It’s working great
Broccoli leaves are delicious sautéed in oil with onions, garlic, salt, pepper, or whatever seasonings of choice.
That's genius
I decided to keep my Shoshito pepper in cold frames all season, they are soo productive.
zone 5 -Toronto
Shishito peppers are one of my favorites! I end up with loads of them by seasons end...I put them on cookies sheets whole, a little olive oil and pepper and roast them. Then I freeze them and use them all winter long great with eggs!
Mike 🇨🇦 🍁 👍
Kingsville, Ontario Zone 6
@@michaellippmann4474 wow! thank you for the tip Michael!
Why didn't I think of this? Seems like a great use for packing paper, too. Thanks for the idea. ~ Lisa
Glad it was helpful!
An elderly once said saying that (“why didn’t I think of that?!”) to your spouse contributes to a successful marriage; another said the phrase, “Yes, dear,” I presume in the right tone of voice!
@@learnjcbskidsterchickensga7594 Indeed! It's called stroking the ego 😆
Love your method. I'm also a lazy mulcher, but I like to pop seeds for lettuces, herbs in around larger plants, so mulch just gets in the way. A tip for your peppers: black containers (grow bags or plastic) were the trick for me in MD. Now I'm in Florida and all I get are peppers this time of year lol
I have done the mulch topped by weeds routine for several years now. It sure does save on the work. I raid my neighbor's yard for extra weedy green matter (they think I'm crazy but are grateful to have their weeds pulled) . I've had almost no grow back on using weeds as a mulch even if there were seeds because the under layer is cardboard or paper just as you are doing - so weed seeds have little chance to make contact with soil and start. And if they do they are squelched by the mulch mat. With our drought in California mulching is essential,
We do the exact same thing - one of the best gardening ideas I've ever heard.
It just makes sense. Any liquid nutrients flow back into the soil
If you pot the peppers up before your frost in at least a 5 gallon bucket, you can overwinter them to give yourself a head start next season. Peppers are perennials. I didn’t know this until I went to my dad’s home country of peru and was told some varieties live up to 15 years.
I might try this. Juts not sure how to give them sun during the winter. I don't have a good spot in the house
@@maritimegardening4887 suplemental grow lights I would guess? Plus since the goal is to keep it dormant until spring I don’t think they require as much light. This is gonna be my first time trying it this winter myself. Best of luck if you give it a go 🤞🌱
Here I go again, Greg. That’s the same thing I do and have been doing …cardboard, heavy paper, I’ve even used an old raincoat once.
Are usually poke couple holes around the cardboard with a fork so water can percolate through. As for mulch, yup… You always trimmings cut grass all of it goes right back
I also use brown paper/newspaper as mulch, but I shred it before hand so it’s like straw when used. I lay it down thick and it works great
Me too. I usually don't have issues, but this year I have issues. Hot as can be, and the weeds are just growing crazy!
A unique idea. I'll give it a try. My brother always tells me that I'll never win the war (against weeds). LOL I guess he's right.
Every fall I put my vegetable garden to bed. In the late summer, as crops die off, I will toss out seeds for cover crops that add benefits to the soil, such as red clover and hairy vetch, both of which pull nitrogen out of the air and put it in the soil when they decompose. Mustard is great for killing bad nematodes can harm plant roots. Buckwheat breaks down tiny rocks and takes up phosphate and calcium, which is returned to the soil in useable form when the plant decomposes.
When it is time to put the garden to bed for the winter, I cut the off the veggie plants at the base and leave the roots in the ground so the soil doesn't become compacted and the roots add material as they break down. I then cover the entire garden with brown boxes cut open, including the cover crops and whatever weeds had come up at the end of summer (don't pull them - just cover). I top the cut-open boxes with about 8 - 12 inches of leaves, gathered from neighbors who had raked up their fall leaves. All of it sits through winter, slightly breaking down.
In the spring, it is very easy to use the trowel through the leaves and cardboard to plant my veggie starters. The soil is very soft and full of worms. The cardboard and leaves act as mulch and a weed barrier during the summer and holds in moisture. By the end of summer, most of it has broken down and I repeat the whole process again in the fall. Be sure to use plain brown cardboard and remove all the tape and stickers.
I never need to till and it is all organic. Just make sure whatever the neighbor has raked up and bagged does not include seeds you don't want in your garden. Just plain old leaves.
I enjoyed this tutorial very much. I used cardboard but now I c it easier to use the bags. Ty.
Glad it was helpful!
Lol, I've done this with rocks, putting the weeds on top makes so much sense. Thanks so much
Holy cow, long sleeves! I so envy you your weather right now.
it was 6am - it gets warmer :)
Long sleeves? I wear them EVERY day. An uncle told me once it's just as cool with the sun shaded from your skin. And lessens the chance of skin cancer. I took it to heart years ago. Choose light weight breezy fabric. I go to resale shops. This is the day 15 of 100+ degree days. Very hot very dry. Still in long sleeves. We do farm related work so we are in it all day.
Oh and long sleeves keeps the skeeters from eating me up!
@@lpmoron6258 If you have mosquitoes, how hot is it really? :D
Finally an East Coast maritime gardener! Where abouts in the Maritimes are you? I'm on Cape Breton island NS! Every channel I like on RUclips is in the states...therefore not my temps..climate etc. I just hit the subscribe button!!! Thankyou!
I'm near Peggy's Cove
Bugs! Plant some citronella plants along the borders of your garden! Bugs hate citronella plants 😁
I read plant two peppers together…Costco, in the past, even sold two in a pot. Matchsticks planted under peppers adds sulphur, an old Dick Raymond tip from Joy of Gardening.
Looks good! I always appreciate the munched beds through the summer. The ones that I skip for whatever reason I kick myself over every time I see them! They get done gradually, but how silly to have let them go in the first place! You'd think I'd learn . . .
I understand
I use grass clippings and straw if we have it. They both work wonderful. Id say the grass is the best. We bag it almost every mowing and it really does a nice job of weed control and holding the moisture. I keep all pf our cardboard for patches that are a bit more bothersome.
Yep, this method works really well. It can be used when planting watermelon and cantaloupe on top of cardboard killing weeds underneath. You can place grass cuttings on top of cardboard giving the tenticles something to grab onto as well as mulch. My only issue with the cardboard are the snails!
I just pull the weeds out and leave them on the soil with the roots up. The sun and heat fries up the root and the weeds turn brown and it becomes my mulch. But you gave me an idea to use the cardboards that I save to place under the uprooted weed. Thank you! I wonder why I didn’t think of that myself when I use cardboard ( no dig garden) when starting a new bed.
Thank you for your logical tips. I put down chicken pellets and I have lots of weeds, tried the rabbit pellets from the family rescue not too sure about that either. For sure not using horse manure. So going to try newspaper as I don,t have those bags you have.
excellent! I agree with your thinking here and it works!
I’ve been using cardboard and newspaper for years even before it was a “thing”. Now I cover the ugly cardboard with a bit of wood mulch and every year I get less and less weeds in the spring
You should cover and major mulch to overwinter those peppers and next year they’ll be huge!
No pepper on earth can survive the winter here :)
Super great idea. Thanks! Also I’ve heard that if you pull the first few flowers of yo7 pepper plants when they are still small, the plant has more energy for root stem and leaf growth which then leads to a larger stronger more productive plant. I’ll be trying it on some control groups next spring.
Ages since I saw you on YT 👍
Same for me with peppers. Season isn't long enough. I'll keep trying though 😁
I use a lot of wood chips for mulch when I can get it....best is our yard clippings but can't use them if my husband has recently did a weed/feed application.....
Reverse Mulching = Weed-On-Bag or Weed-On-Sheet or just "Weed Sheet" ? Weed-n-Sheet?. Need more coffee. Anyway, I love this about your style - thinking outside the box and arriving at clever solutions. I'm going with Weed-n-Sheet.
would probably get a lot of views if the title had been "weed & paper" :)
@@maritimegardening4887 I don't know, maybe so, but when I read "Reverse Mulching" my curiosity was piqued for sure. I was mainly joking about what phrase would be the most "catchy".
Let me get back to you in second..... lol. 5 hours later still picking weeds. 😆🤣
Excellent idea. In the SE of the US I struggle with Bermuda this may well another weapon to combat it. I was thinking maybe to maximize the effect, after placing the weeds on top of the paper, go one step further and place clear or black plastic on top of the weed pile.
Where you are that might make the soil too hot
That might not work because water can't penetrate the soil to water your plants.
Put peppers in a high tunnel or put shade cloth to see if the peppers plant will look a little better.
Great video! Mulch has saved us this year, especially where it's difficult to get water to.
When should I harvest my potatoes? Can you give some tips? I don't want to do it too early. I don't want to do it too late. I've looked at the 'days to maturity ' and the first should be ready at the start of August, but no flowers on those... lots of flowers on the ones that say they shouldn't be ready until September.
Thanks!
harvest them when the plants look dead or at least when they look half dead. Here's a vid I made on the topic; ruclips.net/video/tvUq5BF6uf0/видео.html
@@maritimegardening4887 great video! Thanks for sharing it.
We haven't had measurable rain in weeks...
Even though it’s not ideal weeds are keeping a living soil. The soil microbial machine is engaged as the weeds and peppers and microbes are working
The worst scenario is bare ground.
I had very similar beds. I just weed whacked and moved on. Didn’t seem to hurt my crops at all.
In warm dry weather you don't even cardboard. In our hot summer the weeds were dead after two days.
I was looking for something that USED uprooted weeds as mulch like you did. I’m trying my hand at lasagna soil building by uprooting weeds, letting them get exposed to the sun and layering newspapers, cardboard, poor soil, weeds and so on until I have a patch that is partially raised to use as a space to plant vegetables. I believe the spent weeds will rot down but they will provide nutrients they sucked out from my soil for the new raised garden bed. Is this logical? I want to think of weeds as “friends” rather than cursed nuisances
You are spot on. Weeds are just plants, doing their job. Weeds are awesome and heroic. Always ready to help out with the smallest vacancy, even in harsh conditions. Some specialize in utilizing excess nutrients, some pioneer uncultured wasteland, some breaking ground with their sturdy roots to make way for rain absorption and the weaker roots of successor, others laying a foundation for humus buildup by gathering dust and moisture in desert conditions. They always tell you the truth about your soil and they will do whatever they can to keep it alive.
@@KaoXoni totally agree!! I think we need to respect weeds more and remember that they ARE plants as well and do their job (as you say).
Yes that totally makes sense
Greg, in my experience mulching pepper's will slow their development. Last year I set out plants and mulched with straw. They just sit there, untill I removed the straw a month later. Soil too cool ?? Good luck. Frank
mine didn't grow that much the 1st month and there was no mulch - so I probably set mine out too early; your soil was most likely also too cool, and the mulch kept it that way.
Hi. My question has nothing to do with this video but I was wondering if you’ve done a video on “Soil Testing”. How do you test your soil? If it’s not a DIY, can you recommend a good testing product, preferably something you’ve used yourself please? Thank you!
Sorry - I've never tested my soil. Here's some bits from a podcast I did with a soil expert talking about soil tests:
ruclips.net/video/agB0Yb4TI4U/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/pEXbjLNnM88/видео.html
Thank you so very much for your help and sharing. Great information!
If you live in the south, fire ants looooove to build nests right under cardboard, bags, etc…
How is it "reverse" mulching ? Just looks like mulching to me. Ruth Stout was my hero!
It's in "reverse" because the garden was not initially mulched, so I had to pull all the weeds - which is kinda backwards - so that's why I'm calling it "reverse mulching". But yes, technically, it's just mulching :)
This is how I do it too. Either weeds or chop and drop.
When life gives you weeds , eat them. I do.😁
I wish I knew what to do with bindweeds!
Pull them
@@maritimegardening4887 I keep pulling them (with as much root as i can) but they keep coming back. It seems like it branches to 2 or 3 roots where I break it! :(
Was talking to a neighbor the other day and he mentioned he tried everything including chemicals and they came back. he has now put artificial turf. He said it was ok for a while but now they are coming through that too!
is there really no way to kill it?
I'm going to do this method, thanks. I invest in a 20$ bag of birdseed in the spring and have various birdhouses around my 2 acres of garden. Keep em full and they also eat mosquitoes, flies. I notice a difference right away.
W
Thoughts on burlap ?
Expensive, but it would work
Let's hope there are no seeds in the weeds that you put on otherwise you grow more weeds. It looks very idyllic where you are. Nice.
Of course there are seeds in them :) There is seeds everywhere
Check to see if any of those weeds are edable before you pull them.
Hi Greg. A pro food scientist says one should only mulch with wood chips, for the health of the soil. She criticized the use of cardboard and paper on the basis that it reduces gas exchange and harms the biomes in the soil. I see what she is saying, but it’s only temporary in my view and I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. I can guess what you might say but I’d like to hear it from you.
I would love to read that article... how can it reduce gas exchange - its permeable... Also it's made from wood... it is literally processed wood chips. And ONLY wood chips? nothing else? According to this "pro food scientist " my garden should be a wasteland. Please send me that article.
@@maritimegardening4887 OK I shared the thread with you on Messenger for your reading enjoyment LOL
I ignore scientists that criticize with little basis to their theories. They could look at my garden with an abundance of healthy vegetables and still find I'm doing something wrong.
@@kerry3710 I have no problem with scientists - I was questioning the persons credentials - because I can't see an actual scientist saying something like that.
Now how long will it take for the paper to decompose in July. Good idea
about a month or so
Becomes worm food to boot!
If it makes you feel any better, peps are doing great, but I can't seem to grow the dreaded Zucchini, or crook neck... 🤣😭🍻
Man! Last year I couldn't get my zukes to grow either. The year before they were seemingly growing out my nose.
I'm hand pollinating the squash plants because if I don't the female flowers just end up dying.
use clover as a living mulch
Totally not feasible in a veg garden
@@maritimegardening4887 May I ask why? Compete with nutrients? Or too invasive? TIA🙏💜
This weeds faithfully gave you oxygen to breathe, so show some respect -- !