Well, we don't have our livestock with us, but we have settled in a small house with a yard for the time being. That doesn't mean that I won't still be farming and ranching...just on a much smaller (and city ordinance approved) level.
The yard that we have is mainly grass. Some fescue, some bunch grass, some quack grass. It makes a reasonably nice lawn with the moss filling in the spaces, but it is not much to work with when you want to start a garden. I have already gone through tilling a hay field under for a new garden and spent a lot of time fighting the grass hay that wanted to regrow. Lucky for me, I work right next to a noxious weed specialist. The process that I am following is per her advice. It is not without some herbicides, but I am hoping that it makes the fight against quack grass a bit more even.
We started by tilling under the grass on March 30th. I think J managed to get about 12 inches down which is perfect. There isn't any lava rock here in Kitsap County, but there are these pretty little round rocks everywhere. I was going to spend a day collecting and removing these rocks from the soil but the neighbor (who is an avid gardener) said that they help the soil to stay warm...something that the moisture level here makes hard. So I have decided to leave the rocks that are smaller than my fist.
Here's the plan...
March 30th - till grass
Fence off garden - no specific time frame, but it needs to be done before we do any more work as the dogs think that we have made them a dirt box to play in.
April 15th - Spray with RoundUp, making sure that it is NOT "Ground Kill" but just has glyphosate. You can read about glyphosate here. It's a pretty cool herbicide as it only works on the plant when it is going through active photosynthesis. Because of that, we need to wait for the grass to sprout, spray it on the grass, and then give it a few days to photosynthesize. As a side note, I will NOT be using Monsanto seeds.
April 18th - Cover the entire bed with cardboard. This is not to "burn" the grass off, but to stop the photosynthesis process and allow the herbicide to have time to kill the grass. We don't get enough sun in this area to cover the bed with plastic and have it "cook" the weeds.
May 1st - (Probably May 4th because that's a Saturday and I'm a working girl now) Uncover, create rows, and begin planting. While this is a little later than I would like, I have to go through the steps if I want to get rid of the grass.
Ongoing - I am going to use a sponge brush applicator and "paint" the grass seedlings as they emerge. This way I can kill any new grass without treating the entire bed again.
While I'm waiting for the day that I can plant, I am having fun creating a planting spreadsheet, researching the best varieties for the area, and making a list of things to plant.
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