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Click here to order silage tarp 

(My cousin sells the silage tarp at the website above and when you purchase from him we'll receive a small commission. Just full disclosure. Hey, everyone wins. 🙂 )

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11 Comments

  • Marcia

    Reply Reply December 26, 2019

    When you talk about adding compost – are you meaning your own or commercially purchased?

    • Paul

      Reply Reply December 26, 2019

      Great question Marcia! We are talking about either our own compost or commercially purchased. When commercially purchased we suggest getting organic compost that is well decomposed. Some compost may look like half decomposed wood chips. We would stay away from these kinds. The compost should look and smell like a rich soil – usually dark brown or black in nature.

  • Karen Chiarini

    Reply Reply April 28, 2020

    Hey Paul! When you put that large tarp (I forgot what you call it), and it does its job by killing off the weeds, do you need to clean them away before planting? I know they are dead, but I thought you may need to do it anyway. Yes?
    Thanks! Great stuff here!

    • Paul

      Reply Reply April 30, 2020

      Hi Karen – we call it silage tarp. And great question! I do suggest preparing your beds completely exactly as you would when planting in them before covering it with the tarp. That way you aren’t mixing or stirring the dirt around after taking the tarp off. Each time you mix your dirt you risk bringing up weed seeds from deeper down up near the surface where they will sprout. Otherwise if you haven’t prepared the beds ahead of time then yes, you will want to remove any dead weeds before planting into the beds.

  • Vanessa Knapp

    Reply Reply January 16, 2023

    Hello,
    Great video help here, thanks. I have hope of actually being able to grow something this year! I am a beginner so having the right tools will surely help. I watched as the wheel hoe took out some of the bigger plants in the walkways, do you rake up the dead weed plants after they die off in the sun then? Do you turn them back into the soil or get rid of them away from the garden?

    • K. Jespersen

      Reply Reply February 1, 2023

      Vanessa:

      Though I’m not affiliated with the website, I’ve always been taught to remove the dead weeds. Dead weeds often have fertile weed seeds with them, even if it seems they could not possibly have produced any, and you don’t want to bury those.

      If you want to use weeds as part of your compost, it’s best to put them in a mulching pile that “cooks” them, rather than a worm-based compost system. High heat will kill most weed seeds, so you’d be able to recover the nutrients in the weeds themselves.

      Best wishes,
      K.

  • Christine Bryan

    Reply Reply February 21, 2023

    Hello. I have morning glory everywhere and last year it got into my garden area and strangled my cucumbers. Is there any way to get rid of it?

    • Byron M. Shutt

      Reply Reply March 9, 2023

      Stay vigilante with your weeding. NEVER let Morning Glory go to seed or even flower, it is difficult to eradicate but can be done if you stay on top of it.

    • It’s me

      Reply Reply March 11, 2024

      Just to say that when we redid our landscaping, the bed was excavated deeply, like 5 feet. Also, this area was covered with black tarp for years before we moved into this house. The common Bindweed aka Morning Glory came in anyway. I fought it for 30 years and finally won when I used an herbicide. It was difficult to do because it was throughout ground cover that I loved, but it was the only thing that worked. I feel your pain…

  • Catherine

    Reply Reply March 2, 2023

    So good to know about the cultivating, I hadn’t heard about this technique before. And I love seeing the videos, but all the tools seem more geared towards a large garden. What do you recommend using in a smaller raise garden? Mine is 11″ by 2″

    Catherine

  • Nicole Holton

    Reply Reply July 24, 2023

    I thought I signed up for and paid for lifetime membership. Can you please tell me what I paid for and what does that allow me to get,
    I participated in the class but just now went into the system to play with the program and set up my layout and it said I do not have access.
    Im confused. I thought if we took the challenge we would be able to use it / for a month ??

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