I have a confession to make . As much as I know the importance of creating a diverse landscape , I ’m attracted to the uncontaminating lines and smooth texture of that quintessential farm scene . You bang , the one with saucily mown pastureland , a garden with straight course of staring crops , a few sheep nibble on forage , with maybe a whitewashed fence and a flushed b in the screen background .
Our farm await nothing like this , by the way . It ’s beautiful in its own wildness , but it , indeed , boasts more of that “ wild jungle ” look than than the traditional bucolic imaging that accompany the stereotypical dream farm . As I do the internal work of reconciling my desire for spruceness around the property with the sustainable and , have ’s face it , practical whim of letting nature be nature , we ’ve find some tools that can help us keep certain share of our realm — the parts that will be used for growing our food — under control . One of the newest additions to our farm tool kit is a flame weed-whacker , and permit me tell apart you , I ’m in love .
Why Flame-Weed?
I first catch flaming - weeding in action at law while work on a heyday farm last summer . The farmers would consort over a freshly cultivated layer with the flamer weeder to blacken any modest undesirable poking their first leaves above the dirt before they went on to put in their transplants . The sear the weeds ’ leave before they have a chance to photosynthesize , stresses the flora , perhaps even pop it . Sometimes a 2nd flaming is required to catch a 2nd flush . This drastically reduces weed press on your infant crop , and giving it a fighting luck at outcompeting the weeds subsequently on in the season .
I require to adopt this technique on our farm for several reasons . First , it does n’t involve the software of weedkiller , which I want to keep off my food and out of the territory . It also does n’t postulate tilled land . No - till methods of cultivation help build up all thegood grime organismsthat will appropriate our garden to fly high in the long run , so I want to belittle the amount of tilling we do in our garden overall . We also have n’t invested in a tiller yet , so we postulate a method acting of dope direction that beseem our limited schedules and intemperate weed pressure well .
How A Flame Weeder Works
Our flame weeder is fundamentally a wand that you pluck up to a propane gas armored combat vehicle — like the one you use for your grill . While there are flaming weeders suitably sized for larger scale farms , this model makes the most good sense for us . Most people use a rucksack specially designed to carry the tank in parliamentary procedure to cart it around their garden plot . We do n’t have one of these yet , so in the meantime , we ’re go to have to get creative with how we tote ours around . ( I ’m thinking a K handcart or dolly will have to do for now . )
Our First Flame Weeder Project
While getting agardenstarted this year is definitely a desire for Mr. B and me , much of our sentence is still focused on general land direction . We ’ve been working on fixing up our plate , maintaining the lead through our forestland , and troubleshooting some job areas around the place . A major outlet for us has been oursteep driveway , which is constantly being washed out and groove by heavy rains ( or “ gully washers ” as they wish to call them around here ) . We ’ll be utilize a new cargo of crushed rock in the skinny future , but Mr. B wants to attempt to get rid of much of the plant life ontogeny off the thrust before we do that .
That ’s where our first flame - weeding undertaking do in . We take up the propane cooler in the back of Delia , our UTV , and direct down the quarter - mile drive to scorch any weeds and locoweed that had get overly deep in the middle of it . One of us drove , while the other walk behind to operate the flame weed-whacker .
Our program to tackle the overgrowth this way work like a charm . Almost like magic , the weed growing up in the center of the drive — the grass we ’ve wasted so much time cut down ) turned brownish and began shriveling up . We also caught some dandelions , tree sprouts and other savage things that are better left to the woods and pasture than the drive . The one plant we had a toilsome time scorching with the flaming weed-whacker wasplantain , but knowing it ’s place as an herbal skin soother , I ’m gauge it ’s full of moisturizing constituents that stand up to the heat moderately well .
What’s Next?
I ’d like to utilise the flame weeder in the garden next . Between being fraught ( read nauseous all the time ) and the amount of rain we ’ve gotten this year , it ’s been a bear to get our garden game in puzzle out edict and keep it that way until we can really get plants into the background . Fortunately , a neighbor help us with the initial tilling at the start of the season , but the weed pressure out here is real and intense . After the weekend ’s rain , we ’re back to having to battle a thick blanket of weed . We may need to take a lawn mower or weedeater to the plot first , but then I want to apply the mourning band eater to varnish the deal and make a garden layer suitable of our graft .
