Anyone who has visited the Green Connect Farm knows that weeds are one of our biggest challenges. Following our commitment to grow produce organically, we forgo herbicides and rely instead on people and animal power to keep weeds in check. Sheep, goats, and whipper snippers play the biggest role in peripheral areas and along paths. In market gardens, nothing beats skilled staff using stirrup hoes to sever weed roots without harming delicate crops. It is a costly, time-consuming and necessary exercise.
Always looking for creative solutions, Market Garden Coordinator Rod Logan has started experimenting with a new version of sheet mulching that is showing promising results. Commercial growers commonly use black plastic sheeting to suppress weeds on a large scale. Many eco-conscious home gardeners use newspaper or cardboard to get the same results. We are trialing the use of thick brown paper as a more sustainable material for our market garden beds.
The preparation process starts the same as always: volunteers and staff aerate the soil with forks, use hoes to break up old crops and clumps, add compost and manure, and mark out planting rows. For beds that are set to hold slower-growing crops like cauliflower and kale, we then cover the bed in paper and mulch heavily on the edges and paths. Using a string line over the top, we stab through the paper to create holds to plant into. More mulch is added around seedlings to hold the paper down.
Benefits of this practice include significant time savings for our staff who don’t have to repeatedly weed long-term beds, decreased weed loads in the soil over time, and valuable carbon input for future crops as mulch and paper get incorporated into the soil after harvesting. Â
We are excited by the results so far! And our experienced farm hands are happy to have more time to do other essential tasks around the farm and make sure produce intended for your veg box thrives.
Lindsay Burlton
Fair Food Coordinator