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henless
Garden Addicted
I love your bean tower Mary! The blue is so bright against the green of the bean leaves. Besides, blue is one of my favorite colors. 
Bay, bermuda makes a great lawn. Spreads quickly & holds up well to heat, drought & traffic. But it has a mind of it's own. So beware!
Bee, your place is so pretty as usual. Be sure and post a pic of the wild flowers in front of your house, I'd love to see what they look like once they start blooming.
Bermuda grass is a pain in the garden. I hope you can get it under control at your son's place. It doesn't know how to play nice.
Here is my new strawberry bed. You can see the grass that is starting to take over between the beds. Last fall, I put down cardboard, leaves & pine straw thickly over everything.
My tomatoes, peppers & squash are doing good. Peppers look a little sad, but considering I have trouble growing them, they look great.
Here are my beans, okra & potatoes. Okra is doing ok, even though bermuda grass is growing up through the mulch. My beans are producing, I just don't have many plants. I thought my potatoes were dieing since they never bloomed.
But I was wrong! lol It's not a ton, but they are my first home grown potatoes. I planted them in my only wood chip bed. I raked the chips out of the bed and dug down through the compost about 2 inches to native soil. I put my seed taters on top of the soil and covered up with compost. I put another 2 in of compost on, then covered back up with chips. I also put pine straw on top of the chips to give the taters more room to grow. When I harvested them, they were only growing in the compost. None were in the chips or the straw.
My kale is growing good, but so in the bermuda. You can see it all in the back. It is growing up/through/on top of carcboard, leaves & pine straw. In fact, the cardboard has finished decomposing yet.
I really enjoy gardening. I just need to find a good way for me to garden. I was hoping the bte method would be my answer. I have trouble getting chips. I've only gotten 2 loads, which isn't near enough. It looks like leaves/pine straw isn't going to be enough of a deterrent to stop the grass.
I'm going to try higher raised beds & let the grass grow between them. I'll just mow/weed it as needed. I've been raking up the leaves and cardboard so that I can get in there & mow. So far, I've found a couple of baby rat snakes, a baby copperhead and about 4 in of a black tailed snake with white spots. I never saw the rest of the snake, it was in the leaves/wood chips.
Bay, bermuda makes a great lawn. Spreads quickly & holds up well to heat, drought & traffic. But it has a mind of it's own. So beware!
Bee, your place is so pretty as usual. Be sure and post a pic of the wild flowers in front of your house, I'd love to see what they look like once they start blooming.
Bermuda grass is a pain in the garden. I hope you can get it under control at your son's place. It doesn't know how to play nice.
Here is my new strawberry bed. You can see the grass that is starting to take over between the beds. Last fall, I put down cardboard, leaves & pine straw thickly over everything.
My tomatoes, peppers & squash are doing good. Peppers look a little sad, but considering I have trouble growing them, they look great.
Here are my beans, okra & potatoes. Okra is doing ok, even though bermuda grass is growing up through the mulch. My beans are producing, I just don't have many plants. I thought my potatoes were dieing since they never bloomed.
But I was wrong! lol It's not a ton, but they are my first home grown potatoes. I planted them in my only wood chip bed. I raked the chips out of the bed and dug down through the compost about 2 inches to native soil. I put my seed taters on top of the soil and covered up with compost. I put another 2 in of compost on, then covered back up with chips. I also put pine straw on top of the chips to give the taters more room to grow. When I harvested them, they were only growing in the compost. None were in the chips or the straw.
My kale is growing good, but so in the bermuda. You can see it all in the back. It is growing up/through/on top of carcboard, leaves & pine straw. In fact, the cardboard has finished decomposing yet.
I really enjoy gardening. I just need to find a good way for me to garden. I was hoping the bte method would be my answer. I have trouble getting chips. I've only gotten 2 loads, which isn't near enough. It looks like leaves/pine straw isn't going to be enough of a deterrent to stop the grass.
I'm going to try higher raised beds & let the grass grow between them. I'll just mow/weed it as needed. I've been raking up the leaves and cardboard so that I can get in there & mow. So far, I've found a couple of baby rat snakes, a baby copperhead and about 4 in of a black tailed snake with white spots. I never saw the rest of the snake, it was in the leaves/wood chips.
- Thread starter
- #763
Beekissed
Garden Master
That's beautiful! And it needs to go in the POW....LOVE that color of blue in the middle of a garden.
- Thread starter
- #764
Beekissed
Garden Master
I love your bean tower Mary! The blue is so bright against the green of the bean leaves. Besides, blue is one of my favorite colors.
Bay, bermuda makes a great lawn. Spreads quickly & holds up well to heat, drought & traffic. But it has a mind of it's own. So beware!
Bee, your place is so pretty as usual. Be sure and post a pic of the wild flowers in front of your house, I'd love to see what they look like once they start blooming.
Bermuda grass is a pain in the garden. I hope you can get it under control at your son's place. It doesn't know how to play nice.
Here is my new strawberry bed. You can see the grass that is starting to take over between the beds. Last fall, I put down cardboard, leaves & pine straw thickly over everything.
View attachment 20053 View attachment 20054
My tomatoes, peppers & squash are doing good. Peppers look a little sad, but considering I have trouble growing them, they look great.
View attachment 20055 View attachment 20056 View attachment 20057
Here are my beans, okra & potatoes. Okra is doing ok, even though bermuda grass is growing up through the mulch. My beans are producing, I just don't have many plants. I thought my potatoes were dieing since they never bloomed.
View attachment 20059 View attachment 20060 View attachment 20061
But I was wrong! lol It's not a ton, but they are my first home grown potatoes. I planted them in my only wood chip bed. I raked the chips out of the bed and dug down through the compost about 2 inches to native soil. I put my seed taters on top of the soil and covered up with compost. I put another 2 in of compost on, then covered back up with chips. I also put pine straw on top of the chips to give the taters more room to grow. When I harvested them, they were only growing in the compost. None were in the chips or the straw.
View attachment 20062
My kale is growing good, but so in the bermuda. You can see it all in the back. It is growing up/through/on top of carcboard, leaves & pine straw. In fact, the cardboard has finished decomposing yet.
View attachment 20063
I really enjoy gardening. I just need to find a good way for me to garden. I was hoping the bte method would be my answer. I have trouble getting chips. I've only gotten 2 loads, which isn't near enough. It looks like leaves/pine straw isn't going to be enough of a deterrent to stop the grass.
I'm going to try higher raised beds & let the grass grow between them. I'll just mow/weed it as needed. I've been raking up the leaves and cardboard so that I can get in there & mow. So far, I've found a couple of baby rat snakes, a baby copperhead and about 4 in of a black tailed snake with white spots. I never saw the rest of the snake, it was in the leaves/wood chips.
Besides the evil Bermuda, all your garden beds and plants are LOVELY! I hope mine do as well this year. And that is a very respectable crop of spuds, most very uniform and healthy looking, good size. I hope my own spuds do as well this year too....last few years have been a major disappointment with them.
The chips do have to start out 4-6 in. deep to be really effective and then they have to be maintained at 4 in if possible, but when chips are hard to find, it's nigh impossible. I myself am hurting for depth in the chips this year and will be hauling chips begged from afar, which is not real effective as we have a small truck bed.
ninnymary
Garden Master
You're too funny. My hens picture has already won the POW.That's beautiful! And it needs to go in the POW....LOVE that color of blue in the middle of a garden.
Mary
ninnymary
Garden Master
henless, everything is growing nicely and that was a good crop of potatoes. Mine never flower for some reason. I plant them in tree containers and they're really for my preschoolers to harvest and have fun. They are so buttery and wish I could plant tons in the ground but I have no room for them.
@journey11 has had good success putting down straw or hay between her paths I believe to keep weeds down. Hopefully she'll chime in with some good advice.
Mary
@journey11 has had good success putting down straw or hay between her paths I believe to keep weeds down. Hopefully she'll chime in with some good advice.
Mary
journey11
Garden Master
I've got grass problems too, creeping in from rhizomes beneath the soil. Mulch/straw/woodchips are an easy path for it to invade unfortunately. I've got a section of rubber coal conveyor belt I drag around and it heats up and smothers out the grass, making a perimeter. Other than that, you are left with either painstakingly removing it by hand or spraying with weed killer, as you prefer. Or weedeating it regularly! I put my chickens over my blueberry and blackberry beds for a few months and they did a pretty thorough job of removal too.
I put my chickens over my blueberry and blackberry beds for a few months and they did a pretty thorough job of removal too.
baymule
Garden Master
I still have weeds in my garden, they still grow in the mulch. But I don't care. I pull them up and toss over the fence to the pigs. I pull the ragweed when it's a foot to 2 feet tall and give to the sheep. I'm even thinking about transplanting ragweed to the pastures, mulch, composting and fencing it off so it can get established. The sheep love it.
One of the reasons the wood chips and BTE method benefits the plants is the filament fungus and microcorrizae which work in a network to transport nutrients and moisture to the plant roots. The plant roots and the fungus filaments have a symbiotic relationship that benefits each other. When you till, you cut the filaments up and they die. When I disturb my wood chip soil, I can see the white filament network.
@henless your garden is looking good. Potatoes are so easy and fun to grow. They will not put out potatoes from the stem, so piling more straw or soil doesn't make a bigger harvest, it is to keep the potatoes from being exposed to the sun, which turns them green. The green is solanine, which is a toxin.
If you can't get enough wood chips, then use cardboard or paper feed sacks, then cover with leaves, straw or compost. At our old house, I worked 10 -12 hours a day and didn't have time to come home to pull weeds. I prepared the soil each spring, then covered with paper feed sacks. I cut a hole in the sacks, inserted a plant and had no weeds.
One of the reasons the wood chips and BTE method benefits the plants is the filament fungus and microcorrizae which work in a network to transport nutrients and moisture to the plant roots. The plant roots and the fungus filaments have a symbiotic relationship that benefits each other. When you till, you cut the filaments up and they die. When I disturb my wood chip soil, I can see the white filament network.
@henless your garden is looking good. Potatoes are so easy and fun to grow. They will not put out potatoes from the stem, so piling more straw or soil doesn't make a bigger harvest, it is to keep the potatoes from being exposed to the sun, which turns them green. The green is solanine, which is a toxin.
If you can't get enough wood chips, then use cardboard or paper feed sacks, then cover with leaves, straw or compost. At our old house, I worked 10 -12 hours a day and didn't have time to come home to pull weeds. I prepared the soil each spring, then covered with paper feed sacks. I cut a hole in the sacks, inserted a plant and had no weeds.
- Thread starter
- #769
Beekissed
Garden Master
Had to scuffle hoe the whole garden again today, as all the little weed seedlings were carpeting the space again. That scuffle hoe is a joy to use and made short work of that whole garden of weedlings.
I spread composted litter, pine needles and leaf matter on 1/3 of the garden that is the most thin on chips, in preparation for the chips to come. Will start hauling chips from afar this month in order to suppress these weedlings so I won't have to hoe so very much.
The tomato seedlings are getting good growth on them while under the low tunnel and will be big enough to set out about mid June or so. Much work is needed under my tunnels and in new tunnels...I really like these low tunnels and will likely keep them all year round from now on.
Tomorrow is a day with family, having a cook out, swimming, working a little, playing cards, staying all night for a sleep over with my little girls. Blessings abound!!!
I spread composted litter, pine needles and leaf matter on 1/3 of the garden that is the most thin on chips, in preparation for the chips to come. Will start hauling chips from afar this month in order to suppress these weedlings so I won't have to hoe so very much.
The tomato seedlings are getting good growth on them while under the low tunnel and will be big enough to set out about mid June or so. Much work is needed under my tunnels and in new tunnels...I really like these low tunnels and will likely keep them all year round from now on.
Tomorrow is a day with family, having a cook out, swimming, working a little, playing cards, staying all night for a sleep over with my little girls. Blessings abound!!!
Last edited:
Ridgerunner
Garden Master
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I put a strip of landscaping cloth around the perimeter of most of my garden, usually five feet wide by overlapping two strips, and cover that with mulch to keep it from blowing away and for appearance. Usually wood chips but I'm trying wheat straw on a section this year. I like wood chips better. The Bermuda still sends runners under that cloth but I can generally keep them under control. I plant pole beans, cucumbers or trumboncini squash to climb on that fence and mulch them too, which helps keep the Bermuda under control. Bermuda is still a pain. I try to use barriers to keep it out of the garden.
The problem is that the mulch rots and makes a great soil for the Bermuda and other weeds to grow in. The roots will go through that landscaping cloth once they start to grow. I have to take it up every year to remove that soil and replace the mulch. That rotted mulch is pretty close to compost but has some mostly rotted wood chips still in it. I use it as a mulch in the garden. It depends a lot of what tree it came from. Oak and cedar lasts but a lot of the other trees don't.
In the section I don't grow anything on the fence that strip is inside the fence. That gives me a nice walkway along one side of the garden even when it's wet. I'm behind, as always, in taking care of some of this and mulching the garden in general. I do have that walkway done.
The problem is that the mulch rots and makes a great soil for the Bermuda and other weeds to grow in. The roots will go through that landscaping cloth once they start to grow. I have to take it up every year to remove that soil and replace the mulch. That rotted mulch is pretty close to compost but has some mostly rotted wood chips still in it. I use it as a mulch in the garden. It depends a lot of what tree it came from. Oak and cedar lasts but a lot of the other trees don't.
In the section I don't grow anything on the fence that strip is inside the fence. That gives me a nice walkway along one side of the garden even when it's wet. I'm behind, as always, in taking care of some of this and mulching the garden in general. I do have that walkway done.
