Back to eden end of season thoughts

[Chic Rustler]

But that adds to the fertility of your garden, it's your garden, so why not?

Thats what i figured. We will se how next year looks when im growing vegetables on top of those giant carp and gar.

 

[Chic Rustler]

So we have been throwing things on the garxen since the close of the season for us. Lots of used coffee grounds, chop and drop, food scraps for the chickens, oh yeah we turned the chickens on it too! Our eggs are awesome!, and now 10 gallons of wood ash. This year we had a potassium deficiency with the tomatoes. So i figure we will work on that too.

 

[baymule]

I have a chicken coop in the garden, been letting them loose in it daily now. Last fall, hawks showed up and I had to keep them cooped. Then the hawk family built a nest on the fence line, had to keep all the chickens up. The hawks sure cut down on the rabbits though, they were getting out of hand.

How long have you had your garden? Everything you do only makes it better, so keep up the good work.

 

[Chic Rustler]

This was our second year. I had much better yields than last year but it could have been better. The pests suck. We lost ALOT of produce and plants.

 

[baymule]

My first year, everything died. So don't feel bad. This year I lost a lot of plants too. Then the wild cucumbers showed up and took over. Otherwise I think I would still be picking peas. We moved here February 14, 2015. We had closed in September of 2014, but actual moving day was Valentine's day and our 19th anniversary. The first year was death to all plants. the second year was better, last year I had squash out the wazoo and lots of tomatoes. This year was ok, not great, but ok. I got purple hull peas put in the freezer, greens, a small basket of onions to eat on all summer, corn, enough tomatoes to can quite a few, so it wasn't a totally bad year. Oh, and I got a lot of my favorite spicy sweet pickles put up too.

The wood chips and cardboard have definitely helped-a lot. While they may not be the answer to everything, I think they have helped you a lot too. If you plant a cover crop, plant clover. It will put nitrogen into the soil and when you till it under, it will add humus. Or you could just mow it down and it will put a layer of mulch on top.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Clover would be good. I could let it get big and then turn the chickens on it again. They love clover

 

[baymule]

In this pasture I sowed 5 pounds chicory, 10 pounds white ball clover, 10 pounds white arrowleaf clover, 50 pounds of rye grass, on November 8, 2017.

April 2, 2018

I kept the sheep off of this pasture until April 23, 2018

On May 20, 2018, we mowed it.

It left a thick layer of mulch.

My point of posting these pictures is to show you what lush growth you can expect from clover. Even after the sheep grazed it down to stems, there was still LOTS of mulch that covered the ground.

So if you plant your garden in a good forage clover (that will grow high) and you don't have grazing animals, you will have LOTS of humus to add to the soil. I would mow it well ahead of your planting date and let it dry out, then plant through it.

 

[CrealCritter]

I'm an old school gardener I reckon. I try and not mulch because it just gives a place for bugs to hide. My mulch is dirt that I till up in-between the rows and rake up into the base of the plants when I cultivate. Yes I absolutely do fertilizer but only nitrogen when plant leaves look pale, both my gardens tested low on nitrogen but good for the rest. I found that most all veggies should have dark green leaves almost blue looking when sun light hits them directly. I wouldn't have a garden if I didn't have a decent tiller because I know of no other way to garden. My tiller breaks up the soil and makes it loose for seed sprouting and easy for roots to grow. I don't think I would have much luck gardening in hard compacted (untilled) soil.

 

[Chic Rustler]

The old ways work. Thats for sure. Im not down with pulling weeds all the time tho

 

[baymule]

@CrealCritter by mulching, it adds humus to the soil and over time the soil becomes deep, loose and holds moisture. At our old house, I could sink a spading fork with one hand in my garden. When I first started, the ground was so hard, even weeds struggled to live.

We are adding horse, sheep and chicken manure. Cardboard over that, topped with wood chips. It is vastly improving our beach sand soil. I ran over it with the tractor disc to start with, but this BTE is defiantly working for the better.