Yardening

Here in the southeast US we have this lovely grass we call “wire grass,” I imagine because when you pull on it, you find that the long runners can cut into your hand like a wire. Pleasant stuff it is and almost impossible to eradicate. It loooooves when you smother and cover it with mulch. It says, “Thank you, might I have another?” Blech.

By the end of summer 2022 I knew something had to change. I had been spending most of my gardening energy on keeping the wire grass from growing into the vegetable garden. So we had the “are we going to stay in this house forever” conversation (YES) and decided to do something about it. We broke ground, removing grass with a sod cutter.

We removed the top 4” of sod in a 40’x40’ space. A carpenter friend and I built an enclosure, raised beds, and tacked on chicken wire to hold plants in / keep critters out. I installed metal weed block 8” deep around the entire enclosure and covered the bare earth with pea gravel. This process took about 8 weeks total. It was a lot. I had help.

With the structure built, the fun could begin.

It is important to note that this was not easy or cheap. I had a small inheritance I used to purchase the lumber (it’s cedar which is pricey but worth it if you can manage it) and I was able to do a lot of the labor myself because I work part time from home. And still it took close to 8 weeks to complete. This does not include the work filling the boxes, just the construction.

Creeping grass varieties are almost impossible to get rid of. Even with the barriers 8” down and gravel, grass still grew through the gravel. I used a garden torch on it. It grew back. My choices were few. It was either potentially ruin the ground for any future growth through chemicals, salt or vinegar, all of which take more time to wash out of the soil than we have on this earth, or find a way to deprive it of the essentials; light, air and water.

So, I chose deprivation. I smothered the grass with black plastic sheeting, depriving it of photosynthesis. It worked great. 😁 Of course, I have potentially introduced more micro plastics to my yard and soil. 😟 I would be much less inclined to do this if I didn’t have 2.5’ high raised beds. The chance that any of the veggies roots will grow down that far in one growing season is slim to none.

It’s not easy to make these gardening decisions. We know (thank you science) that heavy chemicals are a much bigger hammer than we need to control pests in the garden, both plant and creature, and that those chemicals can have huge negative impacts on soil health going forward. And yet, we still want to maximize yield as efficiently as possible. I doubt anyone will ever be completely happy with any solution.

As always, know better, do better. Better is not the end, just a step up. A possibility of healthier ways to interact with the world around us and survive without damaging the ecosystem in which we live. Know better, do better.