Weed Moats: Fences, Mulches, Strips, Trenches as Organic Weed Controls

Summary: Weed moats, as meshed fences or mulched strips and trenches, are organic weed controls that bolster cover cropping, hoeing, mulching and weeding schedules.

illustration by Elara Tanguy: Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag, via Facebook May 19, 2016

Weed moats are organic weed controls that team well with cover cropping, deep mulching, manual weeding and shallow hoeing, according to an article in the June/July 2016 issue of Mother Earth News.

Barbara Pleasant, author of Control Weeds Without Chemicals and contributing editor at Mother Earth News magazine, bases weed moats upon weed-fighting chicken moats and chicken runs. Covers, moats, mulches and runs catch weeds in the growth stages and in the habitat niches where they have competitive advantages over edibles, ornamentals and wildflowers. Weeds, as plants whose beneficial roles are unappreciated or unknown, dig in when gardens have bare patches, where soil is disturbed and wherever sunlight remains unfiltered.

The savviest gardening emphasizes covering and mulching uncultivated spots, introducing weed-eating predators and preventing weed rhizomes, roots, seeds and stolons from accessing light, moisture and nutrients.

Weed moating follows chicken moat and chicken run principles since physical barriers, such as fenced or mulched runways, strips or trenches separate gardens from weed-prone yards.

Mesh-fenced passages that set gardens off from lawns give famished chickens and hungry songbirds access to flowering, fruiting and leafing weeds and to germinating weed seeds. Such hallways or laneways have the look of arbors and pergolas when their vertical fence pillars or posts support open air, open ceiling, open lattice cross-beams. It is possible to control and shade out weed growth within the corridors by growing light-filtering grapes (Vitis vinifera) and kiwifruits (Actinidia deliciosa) over the cross-beams.

Edible herbs, such as comfrey (Symphytum officinale) and rue (Ruta graveolons), join to embellish field, meadow, pasture, yard sides of mesh-fenched weed moats at ground levels.

Organic gardeners typically keep posts secured 1 foot (0.31 meters) downward in soil and six to 8 feet (1.83 to 2.44 meters) upward into the air.

Mesh-fenced weed moats look uninviting to deer because of their double barrier and to rabbits because of their outer side topping leporine-proof lowers with chicken-wire uppers. Heavy galvanized rabbit-proof sheeting may run 1 foot (0.31 meter) downward and 2 feet (0.61 meter) outward in the soil and 4 feet (1.22 meters) upward. Organic gardeners need cover cropping, deep mulching, manual weeding and shallow hoeing for what chicken and songbirds avoid: poisonous burdock, pigweed and pokeweed and prickly nettles.

Mulched strips operate best when turned, and mulched trenches spaded, every three weeks, excepting summer, when moat-jumping weeds must be searched and severed every 14 days.

Cover cropping, deep mulching, manual weeding and shallow hoeing provide complimentary support inside edible, ornamental, wild flowering gardens to the fenced or mulched weed moats encircling them.

Slow, upright growth qualifies carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) and onions (Allium cepa) for a third or fourth weeding beyond the first two every ten days. Aged leaves, clipped grass or shredded straw layered atop cardboard or newspaper after the month of manual weeding and shallow hoeing result in nutrient-rich, self-composting mulch. Spring-grown mustard greens (Brassica juncea) and summer-grown buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata), oats (Avena sativa) and radishes (Raphanus sativus) serve as fertility-building, self-composting cover crops.

Organic weed controls translate non-chemical, non-genetically modified, non-toxic techniques into “less time [spent] on labor-intensive weeding -- and more time enjoying the fruits” of a gardener’s labor.

Chicken moats, or runs, inspire weed moats; illustration by Elayne Sears: Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag, via Dec. 5, 2013

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

illustration by Elara Tanguy: Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag via Facebook May 19, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/motherearthnewsmag/photos/a.310229215412/10157125920900413/

Chicken moats, or runs, inspire weed moats; illustration by Elayne Sears: Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag, via Dec. 5, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/motherearthnewsmag/photos/a.310229215412/10153770507820413/

For further information:

Foreman, Patricia; and Cheryl Long. April/May 2013. "Chickens in the Garden: Eggs, Meat, Chicken Manure Fertilizer and More." Mother Earth News > Homesteading & Livestock.
Available @ https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/raising-chickens/chicken-manure-fertilizer-zm0z13amzkon

Jason. 2 December 2014. “Chicken Moats: Permaculture Ideas in the Garden.” OurOchreway.com > Kuska Wiñasun Homestead.
Available @ http://www.ourochreway.com/chicken-moats-permaculture-ideas-in-the-garden/

Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag. 5 December 2013. "As if fresh, nutritious eggs and homegrown roast chicken dinners weren't reason enough to raise your own poultry: You can 'recoop' much of the expense of raising chickens by putting their manure to work in your garden and enlisting your birds for organic pest control." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/motherearthnewsmag/photos/a.310229215412/10153770507820413/

Mother Earth News @motherearthnewsmag. 19 May 2016. "Use these organic weed-control methods to control common garden weeds so that your vegetable garden can thrive." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/motherearthnewsmag/photos/a.310229215412/10157125920900413/

Pleasant, Barbara. 25 October 2013. "7 Ways to Use Leaves in Your Garden." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4EXqrURO8

Pleasant, Barbara. June/July 2016. “Garden Know-How: Control Weeds without Chemicals.” Illustrations by Elara Tanguy. Mother Earth News.
Available @ http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/gardening-techniques/control-garden-weeds-organically-zm0z16jjzbre.aspx?PageId=1