Customer Reviews

Weedless Gardening

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Reich's "bare bones of Weedless Gardening" are:

1. minimize soil disruption
2. protect soil surface
3. avoid soil compaction
4. use drip irrigation

Sounds simple? It is! I implemented steps 1-3 (drip is not allowed in my community garden) in half of my garden, and months later, the results speak for themselves. The half in which I tried these techniques has tidy beds with the intended plants growing in them. The other half is a field of weeds.

This book explains mulch, compost, cover crops, drip irrigation, layouts, the application of Weedless Gardening to specific vegetables (e.g., you don't have to dig a trench to grow asparagus), flower gardens, and planting trees and shrubs, all in clear, concise language and a very manageable size. As a relative beginner, I found it all easy to understand. As a student, I was pleased that I didn't have to buy expensive materials (did you know many landfills offer free compost?). This book, and perhaps a book tailored to your region, will provide all the basic gardening advice you need.

All these pros make up for the fact that the other gardeners around think I'm crazy since they saw me newspaper-ing my garden.

In Weedless Gardening, horticultural expert Lee Reich clearly and concisely offers a system of gardening patterned after Mother Nature, and is good for both plants and people. Rather that the traditional approach to annually digging up and working over the soil, Weedless Gardening provides an easy-to-follow, low-impact, effective, and environment friendly approach to planting and maintaining a flower garden, a vegetable garden, trees, and shrubs. Gardeners seeking to protect the soil, eliminate heavy work, and reduce water needs should first begin planning their gardening activities with a thorough reading of Lee Reich's Weedless Gardening!

Better yet, go ahead and sell the tiller -- you probably don't need it. Introduced to the idea of mulch-bed gardening by Gene Logsdon, I implemented the method in my garden this year. It is now September, and I probably haven't spent half an hour pulling weeds all summer. And it isn't because I have let things go; there just hasn't been that many weeds.

About the only problem I have had is grass encroaching from the sides. With so few weeds, I was beginning to wonder if there was a problem. My vegetable plants are doing just fine, though, and have generally been much more productive than they were last year.

Now that I have read Reich's book, I have a clearer idea of what's going on and understand how I might do things even better next time around. Weedless Gardening is similar to the method Logsdon describes in The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening -- though it might be more accurately described as compost-bed gardening -- but Reich goes into more detail on the particulars, at least as far as keeping the weeds at bay goes. (Now don't get me wrong: I have enjoyed reading and profited from Logsdon's writing as well.)

This is an easy read with a lot of good information packed into a relatively short book. Not having to deal with so many weeds (or wondering when I would find the time to deal with them!) makes gardening so much more enjoyable. I only wish I had discovered this book a few years ago.

As an aside, anyone with poultry might also find Andy Lee's book Chicken Tractor helpful. It too describes a variation of the no-till theme.

p.s. To address Joseph's comment (below) in part, I can get unprinted newsprint paper from my local newspaper. They usually discard the very last part of each roll; just ask if they have any "end rolls" available.

I give this 4.5 stars, rather than 5, because I think 5 stars should represent a nearly perfect book, and this book, like virtually every other book on earth, is not perfect. Though this book is outstanding, its FEW flaws arise from the author's OCCASIONAL failure to fully explain precisely what a novice would need to do to execute weedless gardening. I emphasize that such failings are few; and, overall, the book's concision actually aids its clarity. In fact, all things considered, I recommend this book over any other single gardening book I have seen.

I do wish the author had specifically discussed one important issue. He advises the use of paper--and newspaper in particular--to kill weeds, with the paper then becoming part of the soil. I wonder, however (and I simply ask; I don't know the answer), whether all types of paper are safe for such use? Newspaper, for example, contains ink. Is it safe to grow produce in soils containing ink and other paper constituents? I wish the book had expressly addressed that.

In any event, the book is excellent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I like the general premise of this book, however, I do have a few issues with it. First, if you have quackgrass in the area you intend to garden, the simple 4 layer newspaper barrier will not work. You will have to kill the quackgrass in some other manner. After I had a few beds started & the quackgrass coming up it them like crazy, I used round-up (I know, not terribly organic, but I didn't know what else to do) to kill it off in the next few areas I intended to put beds before I did the newspaper. The areas that I did not round-up before putting down newpaper are completely taken over by quackgrass. I've given up on them this year, although the things I planted in them are still growing OK. It just looks like heck. The quackgrass even came up in the paths, which I used 2-3" of wood chips over scrap drywall over a layer of rosin paper. I've heard that quack grass will even grow up through blacktop. I found a very quick reference to quackgrass in the book, Reich said he killed his with alot of seaweed. It took several weeks & smelled very bad. Sorry, I do not have access to boatloads of seaweed. A few other ideas & more than just a quick sentence or two on the subject would have been much more helpful.

I also found it difficult to put down the newspaper without it blowing away. I did damp it down with the hose, but that would often make it to wet & then it would tear when I had to step on it to put down the compost or mulch. Working with the rosin paper was easier, but I only used it in the paths because I could only find red rosin (not grey) paper & did not want the dye from the paper under my actual beds.

For the most part, I do think it is a great book, the areas I used round-up in before planting have very little weed issues.

I just finished reading Weedless Gardening, and I highly recommend it. It is written in a light, breezy style, with lots of well explained and supported advice. Reich covers his concept of weedless gardening in about 1/3 of the book, then he gives advice on a wide variety of other aspects of gardening for the other 2/3 while reinforcing the key concepts.

He describes fertilizing options (organic and inorganic), provides several easy to use calculations for watering and fertilizing, and is the first writer I've read who admits that the large quantities of compost everyone recommends need to actually come from somewhere besides domestic vegetable cuttings (and he gives advice on how to locate inexpensive sources). He also repeats key concepts in different contexts to improve cognitive understanding.

His section on drip irrigation would have saved me 3 hours of online research and planning if I had only read this book soon enough! Weedless Gardening is remarkably practical and easy to understand. It also amps up my enthusiasm for gardening!

EDIT
My 1st year gardening with this book is done. The methods were hugely effective. I put in 5 new gardens - a 25x35' butterfly garden, a 6x24' vegetable bed, a 15x20' pumkin patch, a 7 dwarf tree fruit orchard, and a blueberry & cherry bush garden (featuring 6 of each). I also put a drip system in the veg bed, blueberry garden, and orchard. All did great! I used free cardboard sheets from work (thin, single layer currogated cardboard that came separating layers of brackets). I covered most of the beds with free woodchips from a tree service, and the vegetable bed & pumkin patch with wheat straw. Only a few wild plantains and a few clumps of barbaric grass came through, and that was early on. Around the cherries I put wheat straw under the cardboard too, and the cardboard lasted extra long and withstood creeping bermuda grass better. It's great to know I can put down another layer of cardboard if I ever let them go to pot. I also bought a 20# bag of soy meal as recommended, and it worked great as a fertilizer. The soil everwhere was a very hard-pack clay/sand mixture, but it loosened up considerably under the moisture-retaining cardboard and mulch, and now digging it to plant no longer takes a pick mattox. I would not have been able to do anywhere near as much in one year had it not been for Reich's book. I have strongly recommended it and given copies as gifts (with a highlighter for marking it up).