NOT SO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What to put in between plants to keep down weeds. There are really two types of gardens, thickly or thinly planted. I try to plant so thickly, filling up all the spaces, that the weeds have no room to emerge. That’s the plan although not all the weeds have signed on.

Other gardens consist of carefully spaced perennials. The new non-grass lawns consist of an arrangement of shrubs, plants and large rocks or other garden features. But, what to put in between?

First, on no account use gravel, even coloured gravel, unless you want to explore the far reaches of insanity. Gravel tracks in the house, shoots from the lawn mower, allows weeds to push though, migrates everywhere. Also do not use sheet plastic covered with rocks stolen from the pebbly beaches of the Big Lake. Plastic is death to the soil (no sun, no rain, just slugs). The style looks good only in Arizona where they can’t help it.

Instead consider weed barrier. Martin’s Nursery Land has weed barrier in various widths. I imagine the other nurseries around town sell it too. It is easy to spread. Sun and rain seep through maintaining a healthy soil. Cut a big X where you want your plant, fold back the points and plant. The weed barrier is held in place with special pegs or piles of soil or attractive rocks and it does stop weeds.

Bark chips are a good option. They biodegrade but slowly. One bag goes a long way. I saw a garden path made of bark chips, attractive and soft underfoot. This long winding path through a veggie garden required one new bag of chips every year. Other natural materials such as cocoa hulls are becoming available.

I visited a perennial garden in Manitoba which used thick mulch chopped by a shredder. This looked so attractive that, for a while, I was tempted to buy a small shredder but stopped myself when I realized my yard was so small I had nowhere to put it. The Manitoba shredder was hidden behind a set of cedars. The gardener fed all her garden waste, leaves, small twigs, and grass clippings into it and it chuntered out a fine product, easy to spread. If I had a bigger garden, I would definitely buy a shredder.