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[Smart Red]

Any chance some of those wood chips are from walnut-family trees? Juglone found in these trees is toxic to most other plants. That could explain the dead zone problem where rich friable soil should be expected.

 

[ninnymary]

I would have the soil tested then.

Mary

 

[Smart Red]

@ninnymary is right! By now you can't look at the chips and determine tree of origin so you'll need some other definitive way to get your answer/

 

[bobm]

Another little quirk to these flower beds... why is it that every cat ( ferral as well as neighbors') in the area use these two front yard and back yard flower beds as their potty boxes. I have tried everything that others told me / I have read on internet that is guaranteed to work and does NOT .

 

[baymule]

BB gun.

 

[Smart Red]

I still swear by my chestnut hulls. No self-respecting cat will squat down amid those treacherous things. I don't know what a box of 'em would cost to ship, but I've got hundreds if you want to try some.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I'm following in your footsteps. Learning so much from you. I'm a little OCD in the garden. Not a dead flower nor weed around. Beds super clean. But I'm getting used to just letting the leaves fall in the flower beds and putting all greens in the chicken coop. So far, I'm loving it too. My husband not so much since he had to go up to the Oakland hills to get a truckload of horse manure. I would have loved to have gone with him but I had to work. Now the only thing I worry about is collecting 27 bags of leaves to hold me for the year.

Mary

27 BAGS???? What in the world are you going to do with 27 bags of leaves?? Are those for the gardens?

Mary, I have added nitrogen, slow release fertilizer in Miracle Grow compost, as well as well rotted compost from an organic composting company 7 miles from our house to these beds a number of times, the soil is quite friable with organic matter and well drained sandy soil, with NO visible success.

I'd be taking that soil to your local extension agent's office for a free analysis. One never knows what has been done to soil....I once read about folks who were getting foreclosed upon and they salted the ground so that nothing would ever grow there again.

 

[Beekissed]

Heavy frost last night, so anything still growing in the garden will soon be dying as our nights get increasingly colder.

I'll be moving wood chips this week to try and keep the garden at a deep enough depth to encourage good composting over the winter months. I'm also going to plant some winter hardy greens this week if I get a chance and cover them over with a plastic tunnel....going to try and keep the resident bunnies out of them.

Will also be patching holes they chewed in my fence this year.

A pic of my only pumpkins...lonely survivors.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, those are some nice pumpkins. As to the bags of leaves, I figured it will take 7 bags to fill the coop floor about 1 foot high. Every quarter, I think I will have to replenish. So I figured 4 quarters x 7 bags = 28 bags to last me all year. Is this wrong? If I keep the leaves in the bags to use throughout the year, will they decompose in the bags? Over here I can only find leaves in the fall.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

Mary, if the leaves are dry when you collect them in the bags they won't break down.
I have given my chickens hoarded bags of leaves that I collected wet, and stored into winter. They still love them even when they are soggy and matted, and they get a bonus of extra bugs that crawl into the leaf bag.