I weeded my corn patch this morning.
Before (Taken on my cell phone.)
After
If you like gardening you have probably seen examples of No Till Gardening on YouTube. Last year, I planted my corn patch three times and finally gave up on it. Each time I planted after tilling, and the weeds took over before the corn could barely get started. Each time I tilled, there were more and more weeds growing. When I tried to weed, the weeds were growing so close to the corn, I ended up pulling out corn with the weeds. It happened all three times and I decided I would try something different this year.
The reason for no tilling is—when you till you disperse the weed seeds. In my case they were multiplying so fast I couldn’t get a handle on them.
This year my husband cleaned out the nearby rabbit hutch and placed the manure in this area. I covered the whole area in cardboard and biodegradable brown paper. Then I added a thick layer of mulch. To plant my corn, I used a tool to punch a hole through the mulch and cardboard into the manure area and dropped a seed. I’ve been watering, and the corn is looking pretty good this year. As bad as the weeds looked in the before picture, they were actually easy too pull, because they were in mulch instead of in the ground. The morning glories had wrapped around the corn and had to be cut off with scissors, but were easy to pull from the mulch.
It made me think of the parable in Matthew 13:20-30 where the farmer had sowed good seed in his field, but while he was sleeping an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. The servants asked if the farmer wanted them to pull out the weeds. He replied, “No, because when you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Luckily with the no till, I was able to pull out my weeds and didn’t have to wait for the harvest. The corn looks healthier than in past years. There are so many spiritual lessons here to think upon. I’ll not go into them, but I’m sure you can think of quite a few.
The other good think about no till is that you don’t have to wrestle with a heavy tiller, and gas, and oil. Plus, having to pull the weeds out of the tines when they get wrapped around them.
It’s not a hard job to lay thick cardboard over the weeds. And mulching is not bad either.
I’ve seen people make new beds on grass that has been mowed short, apply cardboard, mulch, and then plant flower beds, and vegetable gardens. It does work. You do have to be vigilant to get any weeds while they are small. Mine were trying to take over before I weeded, but it was because I had put the corn patch on the back burner as I worked on other areas.
I’ve used this method in most of my flower beds now, and it has made weeding so much easier.
Have you used the no till method?
Do you have any tips on how to keep a weed free garden?
Feel free to comment below, and have a great week!