CREATIVE PASSIVE WEEDING FOR SENIORS

 I CAN NOT  remember the last time I wrote anything about maintenance in a lawn mode.  Well, many people write about their weeding difficulties about grasses and broad leaf culprits. It is foreign to yours truly, since I have embraced them allowing their growth  in/out of  boundaries.

 I want to share an inexpensive way to create space between plants, groundcovers, weeds or lawn.  It is great for people my age in shape. Once the work is done you may change the design, or leave it there until the last judgement.

 Before anything, please trim any vegetation as short as possible to facilitate the project. Once the flat stones/tiles or else have been in place for a couple of weeks, bare space under the material, is created. Nothing left to do. I have used heavy materials but the same effects could be reached with thick layers of newspapers and/or cardboard, if you 'nail' them to the ground or place gravel or the material of your selection to keep them in place. However, this cheap method is unsightly, contrary to my system, much less so.

The flat stones were bought ten years ago in Bayamon City. I used them in a couple of projects before we moved to the occupied territory of Santurce. The brown and white tiles were collected during my strolls in the neighborhood.

I do not expect any demands from the reader regarding shapes, forms, angles, in brief, aesthetics. But I tell you one thing for sure, once you eliminate sun light from any weed, grass or plant that is that. You will get bare soil after some time.

I do not recommend weed blockers, I have seen some grasses coming through it like nothing. The advantage of  my system is that you could change the desing at any time, moving the material inches or feet away outwards  expanding the areas with  no vegetation. In turn it is possible to create
different heights and shapes as time goes by.  Another possibility is the vegetation that will surely grow between cracks/spaces. This will add to the beauty of the whole.  Some trimming with scissors may be necessary if you are into manicured, formal looks.

One thing to remember. You need good knees and back to do this type of work.  Now it is time to go.  In a couple of months, maybe less, this is our wet season, the green will show...

that is that





from the editor   

All this has been taking  place in the west garden, the side across the high bed with Barleria repens featured in caribbeanbotanicalreview last week.  The groundcovers:
Wedelia trilobata, Barleria repens, Syngonium, DK, Asystacia gangetica and Commelina elegans dominate this space.