Shingles Moved

This morning I pulled up the shingles I laid a few weeks back to keep the weeds down in between the rows of plants. As I planned, the weeds were dead and gone leaving behind just nice soil. So, I moved the shingles to another area of the garden to kill off some more weeds.


To understand why I do this, you need to understand why weeds grow. Your plants do not grow naturally, you had to plant them(in most cases). Weeds seem to grow anywhere at anytime without being planted. That is because weeds are natures way to protect the soil. The sun beating on bare soil is actually very harmful to the soil. So, the earth grows weeds to shade the soil and keep the suns rays from beating down on it. To keep the weeds from growing all we need to do is protect the soil from the sun's harmful rays.


After I moved the shingles to another location in the garden, I laid compost mulch where the shingles used to be. The compost will keep the sun from beating down on the soil and I will still have my nice walking path in between the rows. At the end of the season, all I will do is till in the compost mulch I laid and it will increase the quality of the soil in the spring. It is really a win win win situation.


There is one downfall to this method. It does not bother me on bit, but it does have an earthy farm-like smell to it. Typically this only lasts for a few days after, but it can last for a couple weeks. So, if you have a smaller property where the garden is near your house, you may want to try another method like newspaper or some black tarp or garbage bags.


If you are willing and able to use this method I would choose this one over the others. Newspaper will decompose quickly and you will need to lay more down every week or two. The tarp or bag method requires you to pick it up at the end of the season because they will not decompose, plus they both cast money. Compost is basically free. Your going to need to cut your lawn anyway.
Hopefully this can help you control weeds in your garden naturally and cheaply.


Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!