Gina Aken

Has anyone ever tried "compost in place"? This method involves growing a cover crop, crimping or "chop and drop" terminating, layering with wood chips and repeat! It seems like a wonderful way to get that brown/green lasagna, and keep weeds out! I Have fruit trees and berry patches planted throughout my lawn, and I feel like this would be an awesome way to keep an area healthy, and the active accumulation of plants/wood chips seems like it would do a great job of keeping the grass from creeping in. I got the idea from "Well Grounded Garden" YouTube channel, she does hers in raised beds. I think she uses and oat/pea mix, sometimes mustard. (Cross posting into cover crop since this is a combination technique)

M Ljin wrote:Coarse chunks of rotting wood, especially coniferous, are adored by raspberries. That is where I see them in the wild—around rotting stumps. It could also help to shift the soil to something more fungal (and acidic) which is not so much preferred by weeds. Some raspberries can thrive in ordinary soils though, even amongst the weeds.

Hypothetical but maybe introducing some saprophytic, soil/wood-dwelling fungi like stropharia could help? I know they killed off my garlic mustard where I put them.

I strongly recommend against ground cover fabric, which can become a place where weeds sprout up through the fabric and become embedded into it, making it impossible to weed.

Loving this idea, I have some large chunks of wood that I could use almost like a larger mulch. That would most definitely stop some weed damage!

This is my second year using DeWalt woven ground cover, it's not like cheap fabric but more like a woven plastic . I'd rather not have plastic in the garden at all but it just makes my very large in ground plot manageable during our hot and rainy summers in 7b. It works amazingly and I do have a weed pop up through the staples here and there and all around the plant holes but it's nothing compared to weeds everywhere all the time! The only thing is for raspberries or asparagus when you have stuff popping up wherever it pleases, it's not a good option.

Thanks so much!

Ac Baker wrote:Very interesting discussion .. More thoughts: https://www.thespruce.com/raspberry-companion-plants-8639179

Cover crop sounds like a possibility, I have the seed for buckwheat because its supposed to help with wire worms which I had in my other lawn converted area which I made a potato patch (a great bounty for them and none for me 😅🤦‍♀️) I wonder if tilling would disturb the plants or if they're deep enough, or if I'd be tilling around them.

Also I know mint is probably the only thing more vigorous than this grass/weed combo I have here, but I'm a little afraid to plant it in ground since it can spread so much.

Thanks for your help!

Hi all! I just got a countertop food recycler, sometimes called a composter, but what comes out is more like dirt than compost. It dries and heats and crushes the food until it's something that's sometimes called "pre-compost". I plan to use this for kitchen waste and add this to a big compost bin with some Jobe's organic compost starter, along with my disease free garden waste and some wood chips here and there for a cold compost heap. I have never composted before, help a newb out, does this sound alright? Thanks!

Hi all! I planted some raspberries in a patch of lawn, dug up all the grass from a strip about 4' wide and planted the bare root plants a few feet apart as directed. I mulched heavily with wood chips, thinking this would suppress the weeds, but it seemed to only feed them! I resorted to using woven ground cover fabric, which I knew would block new growth but just to give the ones that made it up already a chance. I've seen these big bushy thriving raspberry patches online, super vigorous, like more than weeds, my question is, do any of you have raspberries next to grass and how do they compete? I really want a full thriving patch but maybe that's not realistic in my front yard 😅 My plants got eaten up bad by deer (I'm working on that too) and so the plants really had a rough go of it but the berries are SO tasty, I'm determined to grow more!

I came across the maypop passion fruit as one I would like to grow next year. Seen some info that it can be very invasive in my area (central east coast US) I'm wondering if I need to plant in a container or if I can just knock it back with the mower when i's shoots grow out of where I want it to be

Also wondering if any of y'all grow it and if it's any good for fresh eating and preserving! I love the flavor of regular tropical passion fruit dried and in drinks. Thanks!! ☺️