What are some inexpensive ideas for managing weeds in my veggie garden? Also, any ideas to keep rabbits from eating all my greens?
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Pulling weeds is the cheapest, you use your own labor! To save on your back, a garden hoe works great at pulling by the root so they don't come back. As for rabbits, you can use chicken wire fencing with garden stakes!
Planting marigolds. But you have to plant close together. I didn't so the rabbits still ate my veggies.
Weeds are a part of life and especially if you are planting gardens. If you are making an organic garden with no chemicals at all you either need to pull the weeds or lay down a black ground cover to keep the weeds out of the garden. However, where you hoe and plant the food there will always be some weeds in there that need to be pulled out.
As I'm sure you know; rabbits are tenacious and very persistent when it comes to garden food. Most likely, a fence is the only way to keep rabbits out of your garden. It does not have to be a strong fence but it has to be over 2 feet high as rabbits can jump this high. As a general rule rabbits do not dig under fences but I'm sure they can.
As far as weeds are concerned they are best controlled before you plant but there are ways to get some sort of control even after planting.
The best way is still to pull them up by hand. Advice from the old 'Farmers Almanac" 'Pull when wet; hoe when dry'.
I always used newspaper (but not so plentiful anymore) or cardboard down the center of my rows as this keeps weeds from getting sunlight and is nice to walk on. But remember; both of these items are very slippery when they get wet so you have to put some type of mulch (even stray works) over the entire paper in your aisles.
You can also use newspaper before or after you plant and then add mulch but this is a lot of work; it does save 'work' later. Cut holes for your plants or fit around already established plants.
Here is a site that explains a lot about how to do this.
Here is something I found out years ago when contemplating buying the expensive Preen that you can use to keep weeds from coming up in the first place. The following is a quote that constantly send to friends about what to use 'instead' of Preen.
"Prevent weeds from sprouting in the first place using corn meal. Corn gluten acts as a pre-emergent, meaning it kills seedlings before they appear above ground. You can sprinkle corn meal over a garden or flowerbed to prevent more weeds from growing.
Sorry - I meant to include this link in case anyone is interested in using cornmeal.
Amazing reply! Thank you very much!
You are welcome.
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