In this week’s edition of Garden talk, master gardener Ed Buyarski describes how he makes weed juice or weed tea to feed our garden vegetables.
- Fill a 5-gallon bucket about two-thirds full with weeds you just pulled, add a handful or two of fresh seaweed, and then top off the bucket with water.
- Let sit for a few weeks until the liquid at the bottom of the bucket turns into a disgusting, stinky brown syrup.
- Remove the weeds and seaweed and any chunks or solids that settle out. Don’t forget any weed seeds that may float to the surface.
- Dilute the slimy liquid about 4 to 1 with water before applying it to your garden vegetables.
Buyarski says the liquid contains essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that were picked up by the weeds.
He says use grass clippings in your tea sparingly because they are usually very high in nitrogen content. Buyarski also cautions against using grass clippings or weeds in which weed-and-feed or a herbicide was recently applied.
Buyarski has already embarked on another round of planting for late summer crops of broccoli, cabbage, rutabaga, kale, and lettuce. He will wait until late July before planting additional crops of spinach and radish.
Credit: www.ktoo.org
