DH wants to Round Up! Weed Infestation

[MrsJewelsRae]

Our vegetable garden is completely out of control with weeds. We cannot stay on top of it, there are millions and though we spend hours at it it never gets any better. We are not religious about weeding everyday, he works f/t and I have a very clingy baby and a bad back, but we have been going at it regularly to no avail. We tried mulch and grass clippings and they did not deter the weeds. We have some pigweed and crabgrass, but mostly some weed I can't identify- it is very fast growing/spreading green leaves and stem with purple under the leaves and some purple along the stalk. My dh is discouraged and wants to use Round Up on the entire garden next year before planting, he is jelous of our friend's who have perfect gardens w/o a weed in sight because they use Round Up. But I don't trust it on stuff we are going to be eating. Can you tell me the dangers of round up? Is there anything else I can do besides pulling and hoeing? TIA!

[laohaire]

I just read on this forum that vinegar is excellent for killing individual weeds.

You might also want to look into square foot gardening or other gardening methods. With SFG you utilize the space much better and have hardly any space for weeds to come up.

[limette]

Isn't RoundUp banned here in Ontario? For good reason too. I was just reading an article the other day about how the seperate components of roundup are not an issue but when they are mixed together they become toxic to human cells.

is the veg garden new? if so how did you make it?

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by laohaire

You might also want to look into square foot gardening or other gardening methods. With SFG you utilize the space much better and have hardly any space for weeds to come up.

Yes this.

Round Up is not a precision instrument. It just kills everything (except for specially bred Round Up resistant plants, and don't get me started on the licensing and enforcement for those - they're not an option for home gardeners). Furthermore, it doesn't prevent weeds from coming back. You spray with Round Up, everything dies, a week later more happy weeds are germinating in the nicely loosened soil that was churned up when you removed the dead plants.

There are alternative gardening methods that involve less weeding, and especially if you have a bad back, you would find a square-foot or container garden much easier to cope with.

If you rely on mulch to keep weeds down, you have to be pretty heavy handed with the mulch. One tactic for now might be to cut all the weeds down to ground level, take a bunch of black plastic heavy-duty garbage bags, slice them so they're long, flat pieces, and lay them down between the rows of your garden. Use rocks or sometime to weight them. If the weeds can't get light, they'll either die, or root out to where there is light. However, this will raise the temperature of your garden, hasten ripening of certain plants (particularly strawberries and tomatoes), and make the garden a much less pleasant place to hang out. It is, however, temporary and easily reversible.

[shelbean91]

When I use round up on my regular weeds- not a garden, NOTHING grows in that spot for months.

[Contrariety]

I use round up on the thistles that pop up in the field behind me (trying to keep them from spreading into my grass) and it knocks them out real quick... it's powerful stuff and I wouldn't want it anywhere near my veggies because A) I don't want to kill my veggies and B) I don't want to kill myself when I eat from my garden.

[Lazy Gardens]

Originally Posted by MrsJewelsRae

We tried mulch and grass clippings and they did not deter the weeds. !

It takes a thick layer of mulch - 3-6 inches on top of the cultivated soil - to discourage weeds. It's better to mulch one area properly than spread it too thin over all the garden.

My dh is discouraged and wants to use Round Up on the entire garden next year before planting, he is jelous of our friend's who have perfect gardens w/o a weed in sight because they use Round Up.!

RoundUp used before planting will only kill any actively growing weeds ... it has no residual effect.

The reason the friends have "perfect gardens" is because they got ahead of the weeds and stayed there.

But I don't trust it on stuff we are going to be eating. Can you tell me the dangers of round up?

If you spray it "on stuff we are going to be eating", you won't eat it because it's going to be DEAD. Glyphosate (roundup) is a non-selective herbicide and kills anything you spray it on.

Is there anything else I can do besides pulling and hoeing?

1 - Mulch. Take whatever mulch you have spread and layer it thickly over part of the garden. At least three inches.

You can double the coverage of the mulch if you put several layers of newspaper over the soil, then a thinner layer of mulch.

2 - Cardboard. Lay a couple layers on the paths between plants and wet it down. It will smother the weeds and decay into the soil later.

3 - Better hoe, used earlier. If you have a "scuffle hoe" (the d-shaped weeding hoe), you can wipe out hundreds of baby weeds with very little effort. Use it next year.

4 - Sheet composting (Lasagna gardening) where you layer thick layers of weed-free stuff over the garden in the fall.

[annekevdbroek]

You know, my first garden was so compeltely over run with weeds. I had choosen an abandoned area behind our house and of course it was just chock-a-block with weeds. I mean, pulling just did not keep ahead of the weeds.

Second year I mulched with a layer of newspaper (about 6 sheets thick) and then straw (a good size pile deep) and the weeds were probably reduced by 95%. The key was to get the mulch down early and then just pull the tiny weeds that did come up. This year (we've moved) I used plastic sheet (black paint drop cloth from Home Depot) held down with bricks - and that also worked very well. With newspaper orplastic I just cut a strip opening and planted seeds in the opening, or a round opening for the seedlings.

Since I would not eat Round Up, I would not use it in my vegetable garden. It will also do nothing to prevent weeds from coming up during the season.

[WildKingdom]

I agree with everyone- no round up in a veggie garden!

I just wanted to say, I did a little experiment this year- I made 2 12x4 square foot gardens and one "traditional" row garden.

I spend about 5 minutes weeding the square foot gardens every week. Last weekend I spent 2 HOURS weeding the traditional one, and it still looks like crap.

Next year it is SFG all the way for me!!!

[PaulaJoAnne]

Roundup is scary stuff, plus it means you are supporting Monsanto
Just muddle through somehow for now, throwing down newspapers as you can, and then as soon as you have harvested everything, cover the plot fully with black plastic, and let the sun cook everthing.
Do not take it off until you ready to plant next spring.
and then, mulch heavily.

[mamadelbosque]

Have you tried hoeing instead of weeding? I don't think I've weeded yet this year, but I hoe a couple times a week - and honestly, if you keep it hoed for the first month or two by now theres not as many weeds sprouting and you can back off to like once every week or two. And as others have pointed out if your mulching you have to mulch HEAVY - 3+ inches to make much of a difference.

[serenetabbie]

Excellent post, Lazy Gardens! My scuffle hoe just might be my favorite gardening tool.

I use it (well, the generic brand, not the name brand, and just the plain glyphosate) on poison ivy. If you are worried about killing non-weeds with it, just use the "glove of death". Check out this article that explains how to use it responsibly and the "pros & cons". HTH!