Content
Not every owner of a summer cottage manages to purchase ready-made sown areas. Especially if houses and dachas are built on virgin lands. In this case, the entire dacha is an overgrown weeds a meadow with perennial plants that penetrate the soil like ropes with their powerful roots. Therefore, the question of how to develop a plot for a vegetable garden and remove weeds from overgrown areas arises not only for beginners, but also for farmers with extensive experience.
In addition to grass, shrubs often grow in such areas, which will also have to be uprooted in order to plant cultivated plants in their place. After purchasing it, it is practically impossible to plant anything at such a dacha; the overgrown area will have to be brought into divine shape. Therefore, it is important to know how and with what means to clear thickets of grass and shrubs at the dacha, so that you can not only sow vegetables, but also make a beautiful lawn.
Mechanical and agrotechnical methods
How to put in order the acquired plot, completely overgrown with perennial weeds and shrubs? Gardeners and market gardeners are enterprising people, big fans of experiments. They own many ways treating weed-filled areas and preparing them for planting cultivated plants. It should be noted that our grandmothers did not have chemical products to help get rid of weeds. They used safe but effective methods. But first of all, the site needs to be planned.
Cultivated plants for weed control
Is it possible, while tidying up the territory of the dacha, to use part of the overgrown area for planting cultivated plants in the first year? Yes, you can, and planting will help you get rid of weeds.
- Part of the plot can be dug up and potatoes or cabbage can be planted. As they grow, they block light from reaching the weeds. In addition, such plants are loosened and hilled several times during the growing season, thereby spontaneously developing the site. If sawdust, compost, or roofing felt are spread between the plants, then the weeds under them will also die. Look how it looks in the photo.
- How else can you develop part of your vegetable garden? Our grandmothers put the overgrown lands in order in such an original way: in areas with weeds, they scattered humus in a thick layer so that it completely covered the area, and laid several layers of old newspapers or thick cardboard on top. Fertile soil was poured over this shelter, into which beet and rutabaga seeds were sown as in ridges. You can also plant tomato seedlings in such an area, but to do this you need to make a hole in the newspapers. Plants will grow quickly as the grass begins to rot, enriching the soil with microelements. By autumn, not a trace of weeds will remain on the plot developed in this way, and you will provide yourself with vegetables.
- Do you want to make a lawn of flowers? Nothing complicated.Cover the flowerbed with cardboard or newspapers and plant seedlings of your favorite flowers.
- To solve the question of how to quickly remove weeds from an overgrown area, gardeners give a lot of useful advice. Many of them use green manure, sowing it densely in the area from which weeds need to be removed. It can be rye, mustard, vetch. In this case, we do not plow the area. During the season, the grass is mowed several times without removing the dried plants. Then the plot covered with black film. Weeds and mowed green manure rot over the season, enriching the soil and improving its structure.
- You can clean the area with sunflowers and bush beans, which will prevent weeds from growing. Sowing of seeds should be dense, no more than 5 cm between seeds, row spacing up to 15 cm. Weeding will have to be done in about a month, while the plants are small. Sunflower, gaining strength, builds up a powerful root system, taking nutrition from the weeds. At the same time, bush beans cover the bed with leaves, protect the soil from the sun, preventing the soil from becoming overgrown with weeds.
Cleaning a large area
We will prepare the remaining territory of the dacha for next year. Where to start working:
- First, the dacha area is cleared of bushes. They are cut down and burned. There is no need to throw away the ash; it is an excellent fertilizer. It is scattered around the area.
- If the grass is tall, it is advisable to mow it first. It is better to put the cut weeds in a separate pile, since they will still be useful.
- We plow or dig up the area. Use a shovel to turn the soil over and break up any lumps. You can also use a pitchfork. In this case, the soil must be cleared of large roots. The dug area can be left fallow.During the summer, as a rule, the ground is dug up again when weeds appear.
- Place the cut weeds on top in a thick layer. You can use peat, sawdust, straw, hay, old roofing felt, boards, even cardboard and newspapers for these purposes. This is done in order to stop light access to the weeds.
- Many gardeners use black covering material for these purposes. At the same time, it can be laid over an unplowed area on top of the weeds. This area under the film will remain until next spring.
How to easily clean an overgrown area:
Lawn preparation
It is difficult to imagine a dacha without flower beds and lawns. To develop the land for a lawn, you will have to resort to other operations.
Using a bayonet shovel, remove about five centimeters of turf riddled with the roots of perennial weeds. Sod with fertile soil is not thrown away, but is stacked to dry with the roots facing up. Next year you will have ready-made soil for adding to the ridges.
And now about how to make a lawn. The resulting trench needs to be dug up, fertile soil added, watered well and sowed with lawn grasses. A beautiful lawn will appear in a month. To prevent weeds from growing around it, cover the paths with peat or old newspapers.
Herbicides for weed control
If nothing has ever been planted in the area allocated for the dacha plot, then weeds cannot be quickly controlled without chemicals. Today, you can use various effective drugs to clean your summer cottage:
- Tornado;
- Hurricane;
- Roundup and others.
As a rule, weed control should begin when the plants have not yet entered the flowering phase. For processing, choose a windless, hot day with no precipitation expected within 10-12 hours. The treated weeds first turn yellow, and then after 2 weeks they die off along with the root system. After this, they are removed from the site and burned. Ash should not be used for fertilizer.
It is advisable not to plant cultivated plants at the dacha until next spring. But green manure needs to be sown. They will heal the soil, enrich it with nutrients and improve its structure. In the spring we will plow the soil and plant the necessary crops.
When treating an area with herbicides, you must use personal protective equipment and take precautions.
Let's sum it up
It is impossible to talk about all the methods of cleaning an overgrown summer cottage in one article; we have selected the most popular ones. Each gardener will decide for himself how he will destroy weeds at an overgrown dacha. The main thing is not to rest on the achieved results and not to give green enemies the opportunity to choke the cultivated plants. Then your beds will delight you with a bountiful harvest of vegetables, berries and fruits.
Thank you for helping us control weeds.