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Weedless Gardening |
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Author:
Lee Reich
By Workman Publishing Company
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $8.95
Our Price: $4.88
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Product Description
Conventional wisdom says to garden from the bottom up, turning over the soil every spring until your back aches. Ironically, this does such a good job aerating that gardeners spend the rest of the season pulling weeds and replacing the suddenly energized (and easily used up) nutrients. Mother nature, on the other hand, gardens from the top down-layering undisturbed soil with leaves and other organic materials. In following this example and synthesizing the work of other perceptive gardeners, Lee Reich presents a compelling new system called weedless gardening. THE WEEDLESS GARDEN is good for plants and it's good for people. It protects the soil, contributes to plant health, reduces water needs, cuts down on a gardener's labor, encourages earthworms and, of course, mitigates weed problems by keeping the seeds dormant. Four basic tenets form the system's backbone-minimize soil disruption; protect soil surface; avoid soil compaction; use drip irrigation-and the way to get there is simple. For a new bed or established garden, layering is key, and the perfect material to use is also among the most common-newspaper. Add organic mulch and compost on top, and plants are growing in rich, self-generating humus. From vegetable gardening to flower gardens to planting trees, shrubs, and vines, THE WEEDLESS GARDEN works everywhere-allowing the gardener to work quite a bit less.
Amazon.com Review
"There's no such thing," my ace-gardener mom said when I told her about Weedless Gardening. I think author Lee Reich would agree that the title is a bit misleading (there will always be some weeds). Also a bit misleading are the blurbs from the publisher, which stop short of calling the book "ground-breaking" only because Reich's system is based on the total eschewal of tilling or otherwise turning over the soil. The building blocks of his philosophy have been in use for decades in one way or another: from low-till commercial farming techniques (which sometimes also involve firebombing the soil with herbicide) to simple green composting with knocked-down cover crops. But in Weedless Gardening Reich takes it all the way, no tilling, no herbicide unless absolutely necessary--all while providing everything the home gardener needs to know about cover crops, composting, and drip irrigation. In every section Reich lists mail-order and Internet sources for supplies. The benefits of cover crops, composting, and planting in beds rather than rows are widely known, and they're dealt with in depth here. More controversial is Reich's injunction to rigorously preserve the natural layering of the soil--even when pulling up weeds, dead annuals, or old corn stalks. He makes a good case: tilling under weedy areas kills existing weeds in the short term, but turning over the dirt exposes more weed seeds to sunlight and air, and more of them will germinate; better to kill them first by mowing and self-composting or smothering them with mulch. In addition, Reich explains, water in broken-up, uniform soil tends to flow straight down; water in undisturbed soil travels more slowly, in different directions--down and sideways--thus more efficiently reaching roots. Installing a drip irrigation system further decreases water use (the book includes detailed instructions and formulas for calculating water-flow and timing) and, like many of Reich's recommendations, apparently works best when practiced in concert with his no-till, "top-down" method. What isn't clear is how effective his system can be in an area that has been worked over by indifferent landscapers or that has already been tilled over and over for years. How long will it take for that plot's soil to resettle into something resembling its pretilled state? If my mom starts "weedless gardening" now, will she be wading through a forest of weeds or, worse, buying tasteless corn at the supermarket come August? --Liana Fredley
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This book made gardening fun again., 2008-04-28
I came across Lee Reich's book a few years ago in our local library (I've since purchased it to keep on hand). Since I was knee deep in weeds at the time the title intrigued me. At the time it was mid summer and my garden, as usual, was an example of spring time work gone awry.
Each year, I dilligently tilled and rowed my garden as my father and his father had done, arranged the sprinklers, planted the best plants, staked the beans, caged the tomatoes and planned how this year I was going to have a TV worthy garden. Then May turned to June, to July and 98 degrees and 98% humidity stopped my outdoor adventures. I only went to the garden to harvest the results, which were rapidly disappearing under a malaise of weeds, bugs, and diseases. So once again by summer time the garden had become an unsightly eye sore rather than the picture of pride I had foolishly envisioned while reading over the seed catalogue. If only I didn't have a real job, and kids, and a to do list a mile long, I could spend my days toiling away in the garden to get one of those "fake" TV gardens that obviously cannot be produced by mere mortals.
After skimming through the book I began to get excited. I really didn't expect much from the book but the concepts made a certain sense and if they worked, maybe I could actually improve my garden.
Three years into this experiment, I can say that I look forward to gardening more now than ever. What used to be a chore is now a pleasant break from my routine and a source of pride to visitors. While no garden is truly weedless, it is much easier to stay ahead of the weeds using Lee's approach. It also fits much better into the rest of what I do. I used to have to figure out where to get rid of the grass clippings all year, and the mulch/chips from tree removal and land clearing. Now, my 1000 square foot garden consumes as much material as I can throw at it. My grass, my neigbors grass, my mothers grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, etc, most of which people are glad to have a place to dump, all go into my garden.
I have not followed all the recommendations of Mr. Reich. I'm currently experimenting with composting in my overly large walkways (48 inch) rather than composting in a seperate compost bin. It cuts my yield but pleases the wife since there is no large ugly bin in the yard, and no turning of the compost. (My chickens turn it for me, while adding their own brand of nitrogen.)
As with most garden books, the first half is dedicated to the topic at hand, the second half is a glossary of gardening topics, plant varieties, tools, and techniques/tips which are common to most any gardening book. This is often viewed as a "filler" in many books, a way to justify the price for the now larger book. This book has many such items in it's second half but all that I have read are specific to the no till, weedless method and are not simply added ad hoc from another source for filler.
Again, three years into this experiment, I'd can honestly say I'd never go back to the till method.
 Geared more for the beginning gardener, 2008-03-28
I bought this book because from the write-up I read it sounded like he might have some new ideas. There really isn't much. If you already practice no-dig or low-dig gardening and mulch your beds I wouldn't bother. However, the information in this book is very basic and easily digestible for the novice gardener.
There were a few things I though were lacking for the novice even. One was dealing rocky soils if you want tor grow root crops. He says if you have ledge you should make a raised bed. No kidding. However, many of us are between the extremes of growing on ledge or in the silty soil the author has. In the northeast pebbles, stones, rocks and boulders abound, and growing root crops directly into a rocky soil yields some pretty interesting results. Especially if you start your root garden over a boulder you didn't know was right beneath the surface. :-)
All in all a good book for the beginner, but if you're a more experienced gardener and you're really curious I would check it out of the library, or better yet sit at the library and read it -- it took me less than 3 hours to read it from cover to cover.
there are weeds, and then there are weeds, 2007-07-16
Doubtless there are some good suggestions in this book, e.g. the chapter on drip irrigation. However, if your garden area is infested with nut-grass (Cyperus rotundus) you can forget about the method the author propounds. I covered my garden area not with newspaper but with cardboard boxes, broken down and laid flat. That was four months ago. The nut-grass wasn't even fazed; it punched right through the cardboard and the 4" of mulch on top of it like those impediments weren't even there. I'm sure this method works on "kinder, gentler" weeds, but in my context the "weedless" thesis is useless.
Hidden Benefits, 2007-06-12
Having started my gardening life in the John Jeavon's double-digging school, it took me awhile to accept and implement the approach described so well in this book. Other reviewers have lauded the book and its benefits. I would like to add one that has really changed how I garden and how my garden looks. I used to rip out my large So-Cal vegetable garden completely twice a year, digging in the compost and amendments in one big push and starting fresh. With Reich's methods I can stagger my prep and planting in a way that spreads the work out, and makes the garden more beautiful. Winter flowers that aren't quite done can be easily left in while you plant the summer veggies around them. My newest bed, which was done with his newspaper method over a nasty lawn, is flourishing.
Putting Down Paper, 2007-05-12
The mental factors brought forth through this book will certainly help gardners all but stop weeding.
Using the info in this book, I have all but eliminated weeding so far by placing 4 sheets of newspaper down before I build my rows.
My weeding time has been cut down to 10 minutes or less daily in my 46' X 35' garden. I also use the same between rows with cardboard boxes cut to fit my walking needs, which has all but eliminated weeds or grass between rows.
Try the book if you want to save yourself a lot of weeding this spring, summer and fall.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.0481
EAN: 9780761116967
ISBN: 0761116966
Label: Workman Publishing Company
Manufacturer: Workman Publishing Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2001-03
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Studio: Workman Publishing Company |
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