A WEEK OF WEEDS First week of May 2024

In the last week our work has focused on weeds and how we use them in Buddha Garden.  As the temperature has risen (close to 40C most afternoons last week!) we have had to give more water than usual to our plants, especially our recently replanted seedlings. Fortunately,  so far we have not run out of water to do this.

One effect of giving more water to the plants on our vegetable beds is that they now seem to have more weeds on them  than usual.  Especially as we have fewer volunteers now and thus fewer people to help get rid of them.  We remove our weeds manually  and although we prefer to do this when the weeds are small quite often we aren’t able to get round to it until they are larger. 

This week we tackled this brinjal bed, amongst others, where a lot of the weeds were larger than the plants. 

Given the heat we have had to make sure that once we uncovered the soil by taking out the weeds we then covered it up with mulch.  Otherwise the plants (especially their roots) would get too hot which in some plants can lead to them stopping growing.  Heating up the soil also encourages the soil bacteria to go deeper in the soil where it is wetter and cooler rather than keeping them around the roots where they are more useful to the plants.  Covering the soil with a thick layer of leaves or similar also helps keep out the light from the soil which in turn stops the weeds from growing.

From time to time I indulge in the fantasy of keeping down the weeds without the work of having to pull them out. This can be done by using black plastic or some other form of weed mat that completely cuts out the light and therefore stops the weeds growing.  We are totally opposed to black plastic, as it would heat up the soil and disposal of the used plastic would be a problem. I have come across something called a weed mat that is certified organic, and over time (usually quite a long time) eventually composts itself into the soil.  Unfortunately this does not seem to have reached the Indian market yet and would be expensive to import.

But do we really want to rid ourselves of all our weeds?

I think what this week has shown me is that weeds are an important resource in Buddha Garden. They make good chicken food (the chickens seem to love them and it makes the egg yolk a very yellow colour) and of course they are very necessary for making compost that needs green and brown material. Most of the weeds we have pulled out this week have gone into the compost along with the recently delivered leaves.

Weeding also gives me the opportunity to look at each plant we have planted to see how it it is growing and provided it is not too hot is quite a meditative sort of job. Or one where you can have lots of interesting conversations with volunteers or whoever y ou are working with.

I've come to the conclusion that weeds fulfill many roles in Buddha Garden and I think that without them the farm would be a poorer place