Easy No-Till Gardening Crimping Method

Too many weeds? Use them to your advantage by crimping them (which kills them) to make a lush cover of organic material. This cover will smother any new weed growth and break down to enrich the soil. Crimping is better than simply cutting back the weeds. Crimping will kill the plant because the compressed stem stops the flow of water and nutrients from going to the upper part of the plant whereas if you just cut the top off a weed, it will just grow back.

This Instructable will show you a fun and satisfying way to crimp those weeds. This is but one way to do what is known as "no till" gardening, a method where you avoid disturbing the soil as much as possible. Organic no-till methods include laying down cardboard topped with wood chips or other organic material or covering the ground with black plastic for a few months. On a large scale, a tractor can go through a field with a heavy crimper roller to kill cover crops.

In this Instructable, I will discuss a no-till method appropriate for the home-scale organic gardener who doesn't have ready access to cardboard, wood chips, or black plastic. USE ICE SKATES!

Ice Skates

A weedy place - before flowers and seeds have formed

In my garden, there are sections that get out of hand such as the one in the picture. You could plan ahead, and plant a cover crop mix such as one of oats, peas and vetch. I would not try this with rye, which is just too hard to kill by crimping.

The chosen area will have fewer weeds in the future if you stomp and crimp before any flowers or seed heads appear on the plants.

Put your ice skates on and stomp on the weeds. The blades will kink the stems, which is better than just mashing them down with your feet. Ice skate-blading in a weedy garden requires a different balance than ice skating - you could use ski poles or walking sticks to help you stay upright. Depending on your speed and vigor, this can be a good workout. Add music, pets, and some human friends on skates for extra fun.

This is the area about 10 days later. A few weeds have survived. You can either pull them up if there are just a few or crimp again. There are various ways to proceed, but the simplest is to do nothing until the next season. You could sprinkle some compost and seed the area with a cover crop or wildflower seeds.

In my case, I will put down medium red clover seed covered with a light layer of weed-free compost, and transplant some perennial flowers into the area to create a low-maintenance pollinator, hummingbird, and butterfly habitat.