Hobo Garden

I’m not much of a weeder. The truth is I am, constantly looking for creative ways not to weed my garden. Years ago I read an article in Rodale Press’s Organic Gardening magazine that shared some interesting benefits of letting the weeds do their own thing, one of which is not gaining the approval of your neighbors. But sadly not all are as enlightened as those of us who have the courage to just say no, to weeding.

According to the experts at the long since gone Organic Gardening magazine (I wonder if that article on not weeding had anything to do with their demise?), when we allow weeds to grow they pull up vital nutrients from deep in the soil and when they decompose those same nutrients are made available for your plants. The magazine called it a “live mulch”. They also claimed that the weeds helped keep the soil moist by shielding it from the sun and was a great environment for beneficial insects. I’m sold. No more weeding.

Actually I’m way ahead of the non weeding trend. My very earliest gardens were rarely weeded at all and these days I usually weed just enough to let everything get good and established and then let’er go.

I remember back in 1978 when my brother and I purchased a small meat packing plant in Dallas Oregon. I somehow managed to get a modest government grant to put in a watering system on our five acres and then invited the town to plant a community garden. It worked out pretty slick. We had the whole area plowed up by a local farmer and everyone had access to water with very good pressure. The soil was some of the best fertile loam I had ever seen, what with decades of dumping the muck and straw from the stalls and such.

I of course planted our garden close to our packing house where the soil was the richest. Man did everything grow. I had seven foot weeds and fortunately the corn and tomatoes grew even taller. I didn’t have to fertilize one little bit. I didn’t weed much either. I just kept it watered. We didn’t have time to weed even if we wanted to. Summertime in Oregon meant that my brother and I had more work than we could handle with everyone wanting to process their fatted calves.

In that mostly unweeded wilderness of a garden my tomatoes were the sweetest I have ever had. I can’t in all honesty credit the lack of weeding on our success, but it sure didn’t hurt.

Currently I am again doing an experiment in nonweeding. I expanded my garden this spring and the new ground, which was a hard packed strip of lawn, has been tilled up and planted with a bunch of old seeds I had stashed away in the shed. I planted everything from corn to beans and peas and carrots and you name it. Some seeds in rows and some broadcasted all over the newly tilled ground. I did fertilize it generously and watered regulary. I was surprised at how well all those old seeds did. I call this section of my garden my “Hobo Garden”. You see my wife’s grandfather used to throw down his extra seeds next to his well in Parker Idaho. During the depression he sold water to the locals that didn’t have their own water source and he let them all partake of the wild garden that he grew next to the well. He called it his hobo garden, which he watered and that was all. No weeding, at least that is what he was reported saying. Anyone that wanted could eat from his wild patch. So I thought I would do the same thing.

Of course I have ulterior motives for my hobo garden. I wanted to see if I could get anything out of a plot that I didn’t weed at all. Plus the ground was really hard and the wild growth will break up the soil and add humus. All those good nutrients from down deep in the ground are at this very moment being brought up to the surface in the form of vegetation which will act as a fertilizer for next season. However, no matter how worthy my intentions, my neighbors just think I’m lazy.

Lazy huh? Do any of you have any idea how much energy I’ve expended trying to figure out how to grow a garden without weeding? No. I didn’t think so. So if you happen to drive by our place here in Ashton Idaho and see more weeds than garden just know that this is, by no small means, by design. I will keep you posted on the final outcome.

In the mean time, anyone interested in my easy, sweat free, two step program for lawn maintenance, neglect and abuse?

John

PS

I just have to add a few words now that fall is fast approaching and my garden is about to give up the ghost and be put to bed until spring. If you are a hobo looking for something to eat don’t bother with my no weed patch. It looked real promising in the beginning but the weeds took over and I’m afraid they completely suffocated all edibles. There might be some potatoes in there somewhere but they’re probably really small. Oh well, I guess it does help to weed at least a little bit. I think my wife’s grandpa might have been full of organic fertilizer.