This is my first time putting this many plants in the ground. I tilled the hell out of the ground to get rid of my Bermuda grass months ago and last week all this crabgrass germinated.
Plants have been in ground for a little over a month now.
Do I just hoe it? Iām worried about my pepper plant roots getting damaged
Tarps to suffocate? Never done this but I read it could take a few weeks.
Iām on a limited budget so I couldnāt buy a ton of garden soil/mulch.
You canāt just hand pull this crabgrass. Itās fuzzy crabgrass and it breaks at the stolen so you canāt get the roots up without digging into the dirt.
Advice??
by JaytheGiraffe
5 Comments
Put some mulch around them on a unsown cloth.
Scuffle hoe, cardboard to occlude.Ā
I’ve done pretty well in a similar situation by putting down cardboard between rows to kill weeds and work as a pathway, and by hand weeding around plants.
I have grown peppers successfully directly in a lawn. The main cons if having grass around your plants will be competition for nutrients and light if they outgrow your peppers but that can be handled by trimming. There is a major pro to having good ground cover though: if you live in a dry climate then it will help your soil hydrology and keep the peppers from drying out using less water. If you want to get rid of the grass than I recommend hand pulling/digging. Harder up front, but it will pay off long term.
If it makes you feel better, I weed the everloving shit out of my garden which is 4 rows x 100ft, and your plants look better than mine even though your garden is full of weeds.