CRAFT Tour: Weed Management, Land’s Sake

Date: Wednesday May 21st 2025, 4-6pm

Address and parking: 90 Wellesley St. Weston, MA.  Pull in gravel driveway and park in the gravel lot near our farmstand.

Host: Brendan Murtha, Land’s Sake

CRAFT Liaison: Greg Maslowe

At Land’s Sake Farm, as with many other small/mid-scale vegetable farms, weed control is one the biggest labor draws for our team.  We utilize mechanical cultivation on open beds wherever possible to reduce the amount of hand/hoe weeding we need to do.  Plastic mulches, both conventional and biodegradable are a major part of our weed control approach.  We also hope to incorporate more organic mulches where field location and supply permit in the coming years.

We will give an overview of the machines we use to control weeds on the farm which include an International 140, International 274, Tilmor 520Y/fertilizer sidedresser, Hillside cultivator, and a few different tooling options for each.  We will also discuss our 3 pt. flame weeder and how it is essential for our carrot and long-season root crop production.  We will discuss how plastic mulch is used, applied, and our logic for choosing a particular kind of mulch for a given crop as well as our more general weed control philosophies and how those overlap with irrigation and other farm operations.  We hope that folks will come with questions and share experiences about what works well on their varied operations.