Advice needed on weeding and cover cropping, garden bed maintenance

We're heading into our 4th season with our current home garden and have scaled it up a bit each year. Now we are trying to get better at maintaining what we've started. We get a lot of weedy grasses in our garden and some are a pain to pull. We're trying to get better at cover cropping. Coming here looking for advice, please lay it on me!

I'll post some photos of beds we're working on now (bare with me as I figure out attachments on this forum). We have about 10 beds like this, then 6 rows of planting mounds for melons and 3 sisters style plantings, then a raised bed for herbs and various forest gardening on further zones. It's in the beds like shown below that we struggle with weeds. We broadforked the lawn, flipped its top layer upside down, piled on compost on beds and woodchips (free mulch) on the paths in between. Then we mow the lawn around it. We've tried mulching with hay and with straw but always find weeds in it. We are now adding more compost to these beds and mulch to the paths, and trying to use cover crops more effectively to reduce stubborn weeding (speedily spreading stiltgrass, clumps of I think crabgrass that can be stubborn to pull out).

What cover crops should we be working with and when? I know weeding is part of gardening, but should we be clearing beds at this time of year? The thatch from last fall's dead stiltgrass seems preferable to bare soil until we are ready to plant, basically acting as a mulch. Where we are clearing beds and/or dumping compost on dandelions and things like that, we are hand broadcasting clover seed mix to try and take up the space usefully and be easy to weed as we introduce crops. Then in fall we're trying to hand broadcast winter rye to hold the space, and this spring we are pulling up or crimping the over-wintered rye.

Whenever I refer to compost in this post i mean finished compost blend ready for raised beds. We get a few cubic yards each year for this garden and other areas, some of our own and some from a local supplier.

In my experience, cover crops are no match for established perennial weeds. They are useful for maintaining a fallow bed, but not for smothering established dandelions or competing with rhizomous grasses. I have started to use them to CREATE mulch for future crops, rather than in an attempt to smother existing weeds.


If you asked 100 gardeners how to weed, you'd get 100 answers but if it were my bed I would be:
-Removing all flowers before they go to seed. This is my #1 weeding priority - never letting weeds go to seed.

- Adding some sort of mulch - likely paper held down with sticks and stones to give me a fighting chance

-Hand weeding the rest - 15 min a day is enough to make a big impact in such a small space. Expect to have to re-weed, but the goal is to keep the above ground portions of the plant from having time to feed the roots below that the weeds resprout from.

If I wanted to plant something fine seeded, I'd probably fork the bed, hand pull what I could, and disrupt the rest with a hoe, wait a week, hoe it again, then plant.

I am a big proponent of mulch, but don't think there is any system that is truly zero weeding required.

Catie's right that cover crops won't outcompete established perennial weeds. I had the same problem with couch grass running through everything and the only thing that actually worked was pulling it out by hand after rain when the soil was soft, then mulching thick with cardboard and woodchip straight away so it couldn't re-establish. Tedious but it does work if you stay on top of it for a season.

I don't think those beds look too bad with weeds. Here are some observations from someone near your zone, climate and geography. Firstly, learn to embrace some weeds; dandelions for example are dynamic accumulators--meaning they bring up minerals from the deep subsoil--chop and drop them on your beds before they go to seed--this will feed your soil. I let a lot of small flowering weeds flower along the sides of my veggie beds to help bring in beneficial insects.

Don't use stilt grass for anything; kill it before it takes over. It is an invasive prolific seeder so, it is worse than a bare bed.

I use winter rye on only my beds that will have warm season crops the following year, like squash, tomatoes, etc. You need to let winter rye grow until it reaches the milk stage ( mid May here )  in order to terminate it via cutting or crimping; otherwise it will grow back, and you'll think it's a weed.

I prep the beds I will be using for cool season crops, such as arugula, kale, lettuce, etc... in the fall after everything is out. Since a cover crop, like winter rye or winter peas won't work, because it won't be out by April, I mulch the beds with straw, or leaves and pine needles--whatever I have. These beds are mostly entirely weed free come April. There may be an errant weed here and there, but they're easy to pull in good loose garden bed soil.

Sometimes I can't prep a bed in the fall or plant a winter cover crop, because I have crops that spend the winter in them; like parsnips, carrots, and rutabaga, for example. Then there may be a few weeds come spring, but they should be easy to hoe up. Any type of Grass is one you will need to nip in the bud as soon as you can.

My garden paths are a combo of woodchips, and living mulches. I've tried ajuga and mock strawberries in the paths; both of those didn't work well for me for various reasons, so I pulled them. I have now seeded some of my paths with Dutch white clover. That seems to work better. I just mow the paths with an electric bag mower and toss the clover clippings in the beds as mulch, or add them to the compost pile. The clover does want to spread into the beds some, but a quick pull/hoe and the drop it into the beds as mulch.

Finally: it get's easier as the beds mature, and the seed bank diminishes. Mulch helps. I use the winter rye I cut in mid May to mulch my veggies. Beware however, that bringing in compost, hay/straw from outside sources can bring in more weed seeds. Use the weeds as mulch--chop and drop before they go to seed. Weeds are just plants in the wrong ( for you ) place. There's a book titled: When Weeds Talk; I think it's available in pdf form on the internet. The book details what weeds are growing in your soil and what that means in terms of soil mineral imbalances.

Thank you for all those helpful replies! We do appreciate dandelion and some "weeds" as nice to have around. We've eaten them in the past and bees enjoy them and if needed we'd use them more. But with a garden bed full of them, we weren't sure if we aught to yank them out of can just plant around them and chop back where necessary.

Your feedback so far makes me think it's less about yanking up by the roots and more about (continuously) cutting back to free up space for desirable plants. With some exceptions, like grasses, worth being very vigilent about uprooting to reduce pressure over time. And across the board, watching out for who's flowering in and near the garden and trying to wack them back before flowers mature if unwanted.

Steve Clausen wrote:Don't use stilt grass for anything; kill it before it takes over. It is an invasive prolific seeder so, it is worse than a bare bed.

We realize stilt grass is a major pain, and same with some other grasses. In this case the stilt grass I'm referring to is thatch from last year's grass. It's quite a bit of work to pull back and then leaves a bare bed exposed. In that case is it better to just save energy and leave the thatch, focusing on other weeding? Then cut openings in the thatch when planting, and weed after that treating the leftover thatch like mulch?

In any case, it seems like heavy mulching and regular weeding are the general strategies, with cover crops just helping to act as mulch. When it comes to mulch as weed control, seems like the key is shading and smothering, while also building up garden bed fluffiness/organic matter for easier weeding and stronger nurtured plants over time. We have wood chips abundantly from arborists, while other mulches cost money and have often come with new invasives like Japanese hops and things like that. It seemed like wood chips aren't the right mulch for garden beds, being more fungal than bacterial and also sucking up nitrogen when the woodchips inevitably get mixed into the soil a little over time. Does that sound right to you all? What mulches do you recommend? Straw was mentioned but has been bad in our experience. Leaves are a good idea, we get a lot in the fall and could certainly mulch over winter with those. For folks using leaves do you just push open areas as needed when planting and leave the leaves to decay year-round, adding more each year?

I also wonder what tool y'all use for weeding. I'm on hands and knees with a soil knife to uproot these grasses. A sturdy hoe is also a good way to work out and bust up a weed bed when there's a clear lane to knock everything out of.

I'm considering getting some kind of sickle to facilitate chop and drop. I have a short machete but it is a heavier one and not quite right for that job. Soil knife sawing motion works but seems inefficient.

Then for raw lawn or totally reclaiming a bed, it's a broadfork and a hoe/shovel/pickaxe to really bust up the top layer, remove vegetation and get some fresh fertility and plants in the ground.

That's how I've been doing it. What's working well for y'all on that front?

Just remember that in that stilt grass thatch is a ton of slit grass seeds.

As far a weeding tools go: I love my Japanese three pronged cultivator. I use it to weed and cultivate. Try to find a one with a long handle so you don't have to stoop; less tiring on you back.  This one at this link has a short handle, 15 inches, but that the tool. Any sharp hoe, like a Dutch hoe, is good too.
https://hardwickandsons.com/collections/cultivators-hoes-rakes/products/kusakichi-3-prong-ika-gata-hoe

Mow up your leaves with a bagging mower, or use a leaf shredder. This makes a great mulch and helps them break down quicker. Yes, you can just move the chopped up leaves aside and plant. If you leave the leaves whole the wind will blow them around easier when they dry out. Chopped up they stay moister and stay in place better. They can still get blown around your plants or seeds your starting, and birds and small animals may move them too, so just something to be aware of if you're seeding fine seeds, like carrots. A little bare soil just where you are trying to get seeds up is fine for a little while. You just generally don't want bare soil for any length of time. Annual veggies, or a kitchen garden, has to be delt with a little differently than permaculturing perennials--don't be afraid to break some rules.

If you have xtra leaves, but them aside in a protected pile to make leaf mold. Use the leaf mold like compost or a top dressing mulch. Leaf mold is awesome for building soil structure.

Woodchips can be used for some veggies--not good for carrots or some lettuces--good for transplanted seedlings of larger crops, like tomatoes and peppers. As you alluded to above, don't mix them with you soil and you'll be fine; they don't tie up nitrogen sitting on top of soil. Rake them off your bed if you need to work the soil a little after your crops are out, and then put them back on. It's better if the woodchips are small and broken down a bit. You mentioned you have access to a lot of woodchips; make a big pile and let some start to rot down for future use as top mulch for your veggie garden. Are you familiar with the Johnson-Su bioreactor? Turn some of those chips into awesome compost using one of those DIY bioreactors. Don't worry so much about whether the compost is fungal dominate or bacteria dominate; for a veggie garden it will all equal out. The plants will associate with the microbs they need to.  

Thanks again for all the tips. We've been moving forward with some weeding and pretty deep cardboard+topsoil additions just clobbering existing vegetation in those rows. We cut through the cardboard and planted our starts and so far so good. We'll do our best to keep on top of grasses and just keep adding woodchops on the bed edges to cut down on grass creeping in.

Now for a different part of our garden. We had a somewhat large area, maybe 20x20ft, that we're wrestling with. First we set it up as rows, broadforking and turning sod. A baby came and weeds took over. A neighbor was kind enough to rototill it all for us, then we shaped it into mounds for squashes, 3 sisters. We got slammed by deer and gave up on it, so it's full of weeds again. Now we have a deer fence up and that neighbor kindly offered to rototill again.

I have a hard time thinking of a better option. Grass is already creeping in and it's covered in stiltgrass thatch (and seed as Steve wisely noted). It's a large area to cardboard and mulch, and while that's possible, the pit-mound topography makes that seem like a wonky and challenging process.

Any tips for us in approaching this area? I'm thinking to 'reset it' to whatever extent a rototill will do that, then shape it into rows again (not mounds) on contour with 1-2% slope for drainage. Then top the mounds with fresh compost/soil mix and cover edges and paths with mulch. We'll plant squash, melons, 3 sisters again and in between can seed with clover and flower mixes. My spouse thought the reshaping should be back into mounds since we're planting squash that'll want more room, but I think rows are easiest to work with a hoe, wheelbarrowing mulch, cardboard resets, etc. to avoid more rototilling in the future. Sound reasonable? I don't want to make a habit of relying on the rototiller but it seems like our best option for how far gone it is. Note that our labor availability is still a bit spread thin due to kids coming and growing.

Mulch is your friend.  Deep mulch 6" t5o 12" inch will block out grass.

I think your approach is fine. A lot of "no till" folks do a one time tillage to get a garden up and running, and then of course from there on practice "no" or "low" till. The 20x20 area is rather large to lasagna style, and you need the sod either gone or incorporated into the soil so it can rot and become organic matter. I would organize it by rows because next season you may not be planting squash, and there's no stopping you from planting a 3 sisters planting group within a part of a garden row. A typical 3 sisters round is 3-4 feet in diameter. If your garden beds are 3 feet wide you can get a round in within a section of a row. Save the clover for living pathways between the rows, but you'll need to get in there with a mower and mow the paths; which might be a problem with squash vining all over the place. Maybe better to use woodchips for the paths. Grow something else in the actual garden bed rows between the 3 sisters; something that winter kills; maybe field peas as a cover crop. You could also densely broadcast lettuce, or arugula, or both, between the 3-sisters; knowing that you'll get some to eat and some the squash will cover over and or intermingle with. If the lettuce or arugula goes to seed, you, might get volunteers next season, which is not a bad thing--I love it when I have volunteer lettuce popping up here and there in my veg garden.