So, as mentioned before, my garden is a bed of weeds. There are quite a few plants in there but there are more weeds. I was going to till it but it would just get all wrapped up in weeds so I brought the push mower in there and mowed it, hehe. In a few days when the weeds die I'll rake them up and take them out and then till it.
I knew that this year would be a weed fest because it's my first year with this garden. You can't till weeds and grass into the ground and expect them to not grow like wild. We have gotten lots of lettuce, tomatoes, and green peppers out of it and have green beans, corn, squash, and pumpkins still coming.
At the end of the season I'm going to have my neighbor bring over some more of his good stuff from the pasture and then dump my 2 compost bins in there. Then we'll till it all up and cover the whole thing in landscape fabric. That way it will all die under there and be ready for next year. Then next Spring I'll take up some of the fabric and use it for my landscaping and leave some of it there. My Dad heard that it's a smart idea to use the fabric in the garden and then just poke holes and plant the plants. A-HA, THAT is a good idea! I can cut holes and put tomato plants in and also poke holes for my seeds.
I have learned a lot this year that I hope to use next year. I'll be using big tomato cages right from the start instead of having to put them on later - not happening. Although I did have good luck with the 18" wire landscape border that I just poked in along the rows of tomatoes. They just lean on it. But the branches have gotten so long that they drag to the ground. I'll also space them out better so I can get around in them and they aren't so intertwined.
I'm going to get a bunch more blueberry, raspberry, and fruit trees also. How great to save so much money on foods that we all love to eat. I plan on starting tomato plants in my house in like January so that they'll be big enough to plant and get lots of tomatoes from all next Summer.
I like the idea of the landscaping fabric--do you have to re-set it every year, or can you keep using the old holes for the new stuff? We use hay which seems to keep things down and we also tried crushing used egg shells around our lettuce and other types of plants to discourage slugs and it worked! Great way to use up the whole egg, I might add. We used to have to mow the entire garden at the old house--it always cracked me up, I felt like I should have a team of oxen helping me out.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you have to reset it or not. I will probably roll it up and add my compost each Fall and some new "good stuff". That way I can also redo it and put stuff in different places. I'll use the same holes, just in other spots of the garden.
ReplyDeleteI was going to use hay/straw also but then read that if it's not organic it can be bad for your organic garden. Who knows?????
Oxen or kids, hehe.