How to Do Square-Foot Gardening - ZetaTalk

Oh yeah, definitely. The hoe and these tools require people to bend over a lot andprobably one of the most common tools is your hand. And going down and pulling theweed, that’s what a lot of people use. It’s easy, it’s very specific. You know, you’regetting the weed. Hoes, or a tool that has a long handle, so that you can stand up whileyou’re working with it. You don’t have to bend over and maybe go through some of theaches and pains that you do with some of these. They are getting other tools that havelong handles. Just modifications of the hoe. Some of them are called weed eaters, wherethey’re more of a triangle shape. And you run that along the circles of the ground, acouple of roots and the top foliage from the weed. And then there are other ones thathave long handles that you can stick into the ground, maybe something like this that hasthree or four prongs. It goes around the root. You twist it and pull up. So there are a lotof different tools. It’s just what people get comfortable with and what they like to use.>>You were talking about pulling up the roots. How important, when we’re weeding,what are we needing to do in order to make sure we get that out and it’s not going tocome back?>>Okay, a lot of weeds are really a nuisance. You remind me that we were talking about.If you leave those roots in there, they can send up another shoot, re-vegetate, they’ll comeup. So a lot of times, or with dandelions, even, it’s very good to get those roots out sothat they don’t come back. And when you pull a weed, you want to remove the weedcompletely from your garden area or your grass, wherever you’re pulling it from. Andmove it, maybe throw away in a trash can or something like that, so it doesn’t re-grow.Some plant parts, you can leave there and they won’t put down roots again. A lot of ourreally pesky weeds will re-root and come back. So you want to get them out of there asmuch as possible.>>One of the biggest challenges I have when I’m working in the garden is I can’t reallytell. And this probably goes to the way I’m planting, but I can’t really tell the differencebetween what looks to be like the beginning of one of my desirable plants and thebeginning of a weed. And you focus on it, because they look similar. Is there a way toactually identify the difference between the two?>>The best way is to become familiar with your plants. What you’re growing, whetheryou look on the seed packages. They usually have a picture. Whether it’s a cucumber ora pumpkin or a corn plant, you can get a general idea of what the plant might look like.Another thing is to look on the internet. And look up seedlings. Different plant shapes,the leaf shape. If you’re really having a problem, let them grow up a little bit so that theydevelop more. You can tell the difference between the leaf shapes and sizes. And markthem in your garden or in your flower bed. Mark them if you're planting in a straightrow, particularly in your garden. A stake with a sign or something written on it.>>Popsicle stick?>>Yeah, exactly. Anything can work. And then just follow that straight line, and that’sprobably one of the best things to do.>>You talked about these being helpful in smaller gardens. What if the weeds are out ofcontrol? We have a good, big-sized garden and we need to get into spring. What shouldwe know about spring in terms of killing weeds that way, and when is the best time tospray?>>Okay, the best time to spray is definitely when the weeds are young. When they’re ina very small stage, seedlings, they are killed the easiest. They take up the chemicals the