From: Amy Swanson
Preparing the beds
We had another beautiful day at the Garden. Here’s what we did:
-Planted a few rows of different kinds of peas
-Lost and then found a packet of peas
-Planted parsley
-Started clearing and prepping walking paths thru the garden.
The idea is to have a walking area which doesn’t have weeds and is better defined amid the seedlings and plants. So the process entailed hoeing out weeds and then spreading wet newspaper (6 layers thick) topped by a layer of straw. Wetting the newspaper means they stay put and don’t blow away. This layer of newspaper/straw will inhibit weeds. And if you do this in your own garden, try to avoid the newspaper with colored print, such as the comics.
– Clearing more of the edge of the garden.
Here’s one of the things I learned yesterday:
There’s a difference between straw and hay. You definitely want to use only straw in your garden for mulching purposes. Hay has seeds so will leave behind weeds! Straw doesn’t have seeds.