Modern Gardening

We are trying something new this year. We haven't put in a garden for last few years, due to our rapidly expanding family and the ensuing care of young infants. This year, I wanted a garden, but I wanted to keep it as low maintenance as possible. So, we've decided to try landscape fabric. We rototilled the soil, and worked in all the goodies we've composted over the last few years. Then we laid a soaker hose, which uses 70% less water than sprinklers. On top of it all, we laid two rolls of landscape fabric. We paid $34 for it, but I figured that is much less than I would pay someone to weed in the heat of the summer!!!!! Ick. I hate weeding. There was something wrong, though, about planting through the fabric instead of getting in the dirt. Like my daughter, I love digging the the dirt when I work in my garden, so sitting on plastic and barely getting dirty just felt weird. It's worth the sacrifice, though, if we have a weed-free garden. As huge as it is, that would be quite a chore keeping up with the weeding. We planted 20 tomato plants, 4 yellow pepper, 2 jalapenos, 2 zucchini, 2 acorn squash, 4 cucumbers, 4 red onion, 4 red lettuce, 4 watermelon, and about 7 different herbs. We'll see how it works out!!