Re[2]: no-till gardening



Kay wrote:

"What with one thing and another, this is the first day I've been able to get
out
in the garden to do the winter cleanup. Guess what the front garden is
completely covered in, coming up among all the little bulbs and interleaved with
all the perennials. I sincerely hope that when biotech companies decide to
develop species-specific herbicides, they choose oxalis pes-capri as their first
candidate.

Come to think of it, there is absolutely no O. p-c under the Quercus agrifolia
in my back garden. Deborah, does your hillside have the oaks already, or are you
planning to plant them? Does the California live oak actually inhibit the
oxalis?"

I don't know if Q. agrifolia itself inhibits the O. pes-caprae, as in an 
alleleopathic effect,or if it is simply dry shade which inhibits it, as I
suspect, but there is very little O. pes-caprae under the 30 ft wide Oak on my
property. There is also very little under the Pines (species still to be
determined). But every bit of open sunny ground is buried in it.

I have decided to try several approaches with the Oxalis:

0) Slow down and listen to the Scrubjays and the Squirrels squabble over the
acorns.

1) Mow it where it can serve as a path.

2)Try the newspaper/mulch approach and then build raised beds
over that with compost I know to be free of it, and see what happens.

3)Experiment (carefully of course), with herbicides as a last resort
in areas where neither 1 nor 2 will do.

best,

Deborah
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