Fun week. On Tuesday I decided that my little pumpkin/tomato/pepper/cucumber patch needed hoeing. When I finished that on Thursday after 16 hours in the field with a gorram $13 hoe in my paws I was looking for a Better Way.
Started kicking ideas around with my business partners (little brother and my old man). A walk behind cultivator was my idea, but that probably wouldn't save us a whole lot on labor. Brother suggested more plastic between our plastic covered raised beds. That's expensive. Dad was thinking about a tow-behind cultivator but that's problematic because things like tomatoes will be too high to drive over.
Then dad suggests annual rye grass. Plant that between the rows, let it grow, flatten it out when it reaches 2-3' in height. I research it slightly. Looks like a good idea to me. Works great for pumpkins, produces 25% more yield, you only lose 11% of the crop due to rot instead of 27% on top of that.
It's a "mulch" of sorts -- but it actually puts more nitrogen into the soil that it takes out. Pretty common among grasses. Reduces soil erosion, generally a win-win. I just have to figure out how to seed the stuff now and flatten out 3.5-4.25 miles of the stuff in 3' wide swaths that have a "U" shape to them.
The other hidden bonus is that in year 2 we want our pumpkin patch to be something that kids can run around in. Having soil that isn't exposed will keep the kids fairly clean. Basically kicking around in a field for 30 minutes with exposed soil will leave you filthy. If we can make the place a mix of plastic covered beds, pumpkin plants, and grass covered, there's no more dirty kids. I like this.