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12 Comments
Joe Cooper
October 20, 2015What about using the propane weeding torch instead of hand cultivation to eliminate the young weeds?
Paul
October 21, 2015Hi Joe,
A propane torch can be very effective as well. Go for it! Flame weeding is a great way to do the same thing. This is simply an easy way that pretty much anyone can do.
Bonny
October 20, 2015Excellent idea to let the weeds grow first before you plant your seeds! Love it.
Amy
October 20, 2015Well I thought that a brilliant idea! I wonder if that would work well on other crops. Also, it’d be interesting to do a test patch of carrots at the same time you start this type of bed so that you get a real visual of the difference this idea makes. I.e. one bed weed cultivated and one bed directly sown with carrot seeds. Thanks for the idea!
Paul
October 21, 2015Absolutely Amy! We’ve done it very successfully on turnips before. It works especially well with anything that is direct seeded into the garden. If you are transplanting plants then they already have a huge head start on the weeds since they are a couple weeks old (at least) when they are put into the garden in the first place. But even then you can still use this method to hold of the weeds even longer. The more you cultivate like this the less and less weed problems you will have over time!
karen carlisle
October 29, 2015Paul, would love to speak with you by phone. 317 517 7420 We have started using the Back to Eden method with wood chips. Have you tried them in the high tunnel?
Paul
March 16, 2016Hi Karen thanks for your note. 🙂 We honestly haven’t used the wood chips inside our high tunnel. We have done some with our flower garden beds and it seemed to work well. I’ve heard various reports and want to do more testing myself.
Vicky
March 16, 2016On your video when you showed the carrots 1 month later which were larger than the new weeds growing, did you then weed by hand those little weeds or leave them? We grow carrots in a block rather than rows, so any weeding is difficult and must be by hand. Hopefully getting most of the weeds knocked down before planting the carrots will help.
Paul
March 16, 2016Hi Vicky – that’s a great question. We then weeded by hand a few times until the carrots were big enough to crowd out the weeds themselves. I’d encourage you to consider growing in rows close together as it really does make weeding a lot easier. We have a small enough colinear hoe that we can use to go in between the carrot rows. But if we want to get the weeds directly between the plants then we have to do it by hand.
Maria
August 18, 2018Hello Paul, We are trying a new trick this year. Cornmeal. We have weeded are flower bed and I put some cornmeal down and yep no weeds. The flowers are fine, but I don’t know how it will do with our veggies. If you do know please do tell hahaha, so far so good tho. No weeds where I sprinkled the meal. If it does work we will be buying a corn grinder to make it cost efficient. Thank you for all you Wonderful Videos I really enjoy learning from you. Keep it up and Happy Gardening!! 🙂
M
Paul
August 20, 2018Awesome Maria! Keep up the good work. And yes, absolutely. Cornmeal Gluten can be effective as a weed suppressant. It will help keep new weeds from germinating. It will probably not keep ALL weeds from growing but should cut back on your work for sure. Check out this article for more info on it: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/organic/cornmeal-in-the-garden.htm
Susan Bernauer
February 8, 2021Paul
I’ve been trying to contact you but am not getting a response.
I have not found a phone number to call, so I’m limited to email.
Please
Contact me by email
SusanB@Sueflycreations.com
I have a problem with my membership
Thanks
Susan Bernauer
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