Photo courtesy of photofarmer at Flickr.com.
Traditionally, even organic gardeners have preferred to keep the strips between crop rows free of weeds and other plants, reasoning that these intruders waste nutrients and water better used by the vegetables. But there can be benefits to these so-called “biostrips,” particularly if you manage them properly and sow them with the right “weeds.”
Effective biostrips are about two feet wide, and consist of a diverse mix of wildflowers, wild herbs, legumes (especially clovers) and grasses. They offer ideal paths for you to walk on and for your equipment to move along; therefore, compaction is limited to these strips, where it’s minimized due to the existence of the root systems of the plants growing on it. Furthermore, biostrips prevent erosion of the portion of the garden not actually used to grow your crops; and if properly managed, they offer habitat for beneficial insects, particularly if the herbs and flowers are allowed to mature.
Even if they’re not, biostrips offer a ready-made source of nutrients for your plants. All you need to do is mow them regularly (they ought to get 4-5 mowings per growing season) and blow the cuttings into the plant rows and beds, where they can either be tilled into the soil as green manure or left on the surface as mulch.
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