Do you mulch your vegetable gardens?
Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
last year
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last yearlast modified: last yearHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
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Very, very confused about vegetable garden mulch
Comments (22)Wow, what a great, sunny location for your garden! Regarding the tilling, you should do some research on lasagna gardening--you can kill a couple of birds with one stone on that one (adding good nutrient to a new garden, preventing the grass regrowing/growing through, and NO MORE TILLING!!!). Lasagna gardening is simply layering (lasagna style!) mulch and compostable materials into your garden until the garden itself is compost. Furthermore, it supposedly results in no new weeds (I am only just trying it out, container-style, this year for the first time), but that may depend upon the layers that you use and what's in them. It's probably too late to find some fall leaves, unless you have a local extension or agency that can point you to some--I have some for my composter, but I ain't shippin' 'em to ya' from Colorado!!! Besides, I need them for my own garden. ;-D Anyway, you have more than enough "mulch" answers here--very good, all of them. Points to remember: different things work for different people, different climates, and different end purposes. Maybe you don't mind pulling the occasional weed or two, in which case, straw or hay might not be a problem. You've gotten some great advice from some seasoned gardeners, here, and if I may make one more suggestion on your garden plan, check which things grow shorter than others, and put those all on the south side. Cukes, lettuce, radishes should all be to the south of peas, tomatoes, and most herbs (although, herbs should be south of the peas & 'maters). I would even suggest doing the herbs in pots that you can pull out come wintertime--there's nothing like fresh herbs in the deepest darkest pit of winter. One comment I must make, however, is that, according to the size/scale of your wheelbarrow, your plot doesn't look even close to large enough for what your plan shows--pumpkins can take over an entire garden, and tomatoes, well, they have a character all their own! If that's your house in the background, surely you won't be feeding the small army that 8 tomato plants will produce in your zone. Be sure to give enough room for everything, and if this is your first (or even second or third... or twenty-third!) attempt at gardening, it's common (a common "sickness" among gardeners?) to try to put to much into too small a space. Go with less-you'll be able to figure out what works and doesn't, what you'd try again and what you'd do differently. Do keep a journal of your dates, notes, etc (it doesn't have to be formal, but I do suggest using a non-water-soluble pen, since it's not uncommon for garden journals to get "watered" with the rest of the garden from time to time!) so you'll know what's what for next year. And yes, just like in sports, "there's always next year!" Welcome to gardening, and please post back to let us know how your garden turns out! You're very wise to plan in such detail!!!...See MoreExperience with pine needle mulch on vegetable garden.
Comments (9)I can see how in the South with such extended heat so many backyard veg gardeners make use of mulch but I was raised that the health of the soil requires exposure to air,sunlight and rainwater. Husband came from a family of farmers and his Dad was possessive of my small veg. garden and taught me the same respect for the soil that my own parents had. This was up North but Mom was from down South and she from a family who never used a lick of mulch on flowers or vegetables. I never saw or heard of voles until I came South to an area where every neighborhood was newer and every house was 'landscaped' and embalmed in pinestraw. Wonderful habitat for voles. Doing all their damage out of sight of owls and hawks and snakes. I've been through 4 major droughts here and what little rain we did get went directly to the soil instead of soaking/dampening inches of pinestraw only to evaporate the next day while the shrubs suffered further. Mulch saves you time and labor which is what generations before us accepted as part of the soil husbandry required to feed our families. If your tomatoes don't produce as expected, you have options those previous generations did not have. me..I like to feel the tilth of the soil in my hands and smell its richness and know when it is ready to accept seeds I need to grow food or beautiful flowers. I don't want to pull back the mulch, organic or black plastic and find that stinking white filiment fungus that grows in the damp, out of sunlight....See MoreHow is your Idaho vegetable garden doing?
Comments (8)We have been enjoying Mediterranean and crock neck Squash since the end of June and still have more than my family can eat. Picked our first zucchini last week with more to come. Spinach did great this year and we enjoyed it up until the middle of this month when it finally bolted and seeded. We will be replanting a fall crop soon. We have a few varieties of loose leaf lettuce that we enjoyed all spring, it is still growing but has become bitter so we are periodically pulling it up and using it as chicken food, which they love. Peas are still going! I planted them under a shade tree and we still pick some on a daily basis. Pole beans are Giant and we should have some beans coming on soon. Kohlrabi we also planted i a shady area are starting to get large! well be picking them soon and replanting a fall crop. Chards are large but almost done. I have 15 Tomato plants and four varieties. The Romas are doing quite well, loaded with medium to small fruit right now and some are still blossoming. I have had some blossom drop due to the hot weather though but it hasn't really slowed the fruit from setting. The Celebrities are done blossoming and should start riping in the next couple of weeks. My old Germans are just now coming on strong.... I didn't get many early blooms but now that they are 6ft+ they are getting more and more and are closer together. I don't know if that's normal for that variety but the first blooms on both plants only had two flowers an neither one of them produced. the next set happened at about the 3.5 ft mark and they produced one each. the next group had twice as many flowers and have about 4 or 5 each and is get better the father up the plant you get.... it's strange but I have never grown this variety before. I have two Brandywines that I planted mid June, I rescued from D@B, they were half dead and very root bound. But they have done tremendously well after I transplanted them and trimmed them up. both are about 5 ft high now and are loaded with tomatoes. They just started setting fruit about two weeks ago and even the high temps didn't slow them down. It's been a good year all around so far for me....See MoreMulch advice and options for a small vegetable garden
Comments (6)If appearance is not a huge issue, you can make one out of old pallets, which you can usually scrounge up free. People I know of who have done this usually nail three pallets together to form three sides and then attach the fourth side, which is the front side, in a manner that allows it to be easily removed so they can turn the stuff in the pile. If appearance is an issue, you could still use the pallets, and plant a really fast growing vine, like morning glories, moonflowers, cypress vine, hyacinth beans, etc. They will grow up the outsides of the pallets and cover the whole thing in just a couple of months. Or, you can plant a perennial vine that would be slower growing, but permanent, and would perhaps make the bin area more attractive year-round. You'd want somthing that is not wildly invasive, so maybe something like American crossvine, passionflower, one of the hybird honeysuckles, or sweet autumn clematis. The clematis is a rampant grower, but blooms with lovely small scented white blossoms in August and is a delight to grow. If you want to be really adventurous, and get away with not turning the compost pile for months, create a Japanese tomato ring. I used the Japanese tomato rings (find instructions via google) for four years to enrich the ground where I now grow corn, beans, melons and pumpkins. My rings were large, about the size of one of those hard plastic kiddie wading pools you buy at Wal-Mart. I planted six tomato plants around each ring. I threw compost into the rings, including grass clippings and such (but NOT diseased tomato foliage) and the compost fed the tomato plants as it decomposed, and the tomato plants hid the compost pile. In the fall after the tomato plants were dead, I pulled them up. Then I unfastened the 4' tall woven-wire fencing that I had used to form the ring. (It was held together with big zip ties.) I raked out all the compost and tilled it into the ground in the fall. Then I reformed the ring and threw food scraps, leaves, etc. into it all winter. After several years of this, the soil was beautifully enriched and I was able to make vast quantities of compost with little effort while producing outrageous amounts of tomatoes. Do you belong to the Freecycle group for your city/region? If not, maybe you could give it a try. If you post that you are looking for materials to make a compost bin and then list what kinds of materials you are looking for, you might have someone in your area who is wanting to get rid of that same stuff. I am amazed at the kinds of things you see people giving away on freecycle. Have a great day and don't stress too much over it being deadline day. All that stress is bad for your health. :)...See Morevgkg Z-7 Va
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laceyvail 6A, WV