Why Aren’t There any Weeds in a Square Foot Garden?
- We lay down a weed fabric under our boxes, so that none of the existing weed seeds in the ground will sprout and come up into your garden.
- There are no weed seeds in Mel’s Mix. If you make your own, keep in mind there are no weed seeds in peat moss and vermiculite. If you make your compost properly, your pile will heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit which will kill all weed seeds that might have been introduced.
- If a weed seed blows in from your neighbors old fashioned single row garden, or a dandelion seed blows into your garden, you will recognize it as a foreign seed because it is out of place and therefore you know it can be pulled and put in the compost pile immediately.
- If a weed seed does sprout and you pull it out, your Mel’s Mix is so loose and friable that the entire root will come out and never sprout again. This is quite different than single row gardening and in fact ALL other methods have weed seeds in their soil mix. When those seeds sprout, you’re back to hoeing weeds all summer for the rest of your life.
- A weed seed is the most energetic, vibrant plant on Earth – that’s why they grow everywhere without any help from a gardener. I always thought that the easy solution is to never have weed seeds in your garden from the start.
- In traditional gardening, when you’re hoeing all of those weeds down, if you think about it, all you’re doing with a hoe is chopping off the top of the seed. The ground is so hard that you don’t dig down and get the root and the plant merely sees this as an inconvenience and pops up with a new sprout. The weeding starts all over again.
- Keep in mind the above is extremely important to a successful gardening experience, because weeds, being so aggressive, will take all of the nutrients, water and sunlight out of your garden. That’s why my first priority in the new SFG method was to eliminate weeds and weed seeds completely right from the start. No labor, no tools, no sweat!
I am just getting started with my first SFG, and I have a question: if I put a SFG on my lawn, do I need to dig out the existing grass underneath it? Or will the commercial-grade weed fabric take care of that?
Hi Mike,
You do not need to dig out your existing lawn but I would recommend mowing it as close to the ground as possible before you lay your weed fabric and box down. That way you get a level surface and not as much grass to interfere with the garden.
Happy Gardening,
Mel
Mel,
This will be our third year of SFGardening. We added some new compost to each of our 3 boxes but I was so sad to see that there are so many weeds in the boxes. One of the boxes is almost totally covered with these pesky weeds! So now have veggies coming through a carpet of weeds! Any ideas? We did the refreshing and planting 8 days ago.
Dear Neelam,
First question – did you have weeds in your garden boxes BEFORE this year? If not, then apparently they came from the compost you just added. Sometimes, if compost doesn’t heat up high enough or long enough, weed seeds do not get killed. There are also some weeds that are very tenacious and difficult to kill. The only solution it seems right now would be to, I hate to say it, but remove all of your Mel’s Mix in that box which is loaded now with weed seeds and weeds.
The only other alternative is to pull out all of the weeds now and hope that no more will sprout, but I doubt that will happen. Please describe your composting operation so we can help you determine what you put in it and why it had so many weed seeds in it. Please tell me what the ingredients were and how long they cooked, and do you have any idea of how hot the pile got? Did you turn it often? All of those questions. This would be invaluable information for others who are just starting to compost and learn the operation and it would be important to understand what should/shouldn’t be put into a compost pile and how to know when it’s finished.
The other alternative, Neelam, would be to take 1 box and remove all of the soil, put down the weed fabric again and fill it with fresh, new Mel’s Mix. Take the 2nd box and remove all weeds and then replant. Use the 3rd box as a control. Wouldn’t hurt to take a few pictures of all 3 during the operation. This would help many people so I hope you’ll be able to do that. Please keep in touch.
P.S. Think about what you did differently this year vs. the first 2 years to answer the weeds question!
Happy Gardening,
Mel