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[canesisters]

@Beekissed - my source for sawdust is drying up. Well.. he's still got plenty but he's getting difficult to work with.
You're having BETTER results using hay instead of woodchips, right? Would this work for the FIRST layer of BTE when converting lawn to garden? To put down cardboard, then scatter manure (chicken litter), then thick hay?

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed - my source for sawdust is drying up. Well.. he's still got plenty but he's getting difficult to work with.
You're having BETTER results using hay instead of woodchips, right? Would this work for the FIRST layer of BTE when converting lawn to garden? To put down cardboard, then scatter manure (chicken litter), then thick hay?

Sure would. Ruth Stout was doing this WAY before there ever was a Paul G. and the BTE. You wouldn't even really need cardboard if the hay was thick enough and on there long enough, but if you have it, why not use it, huh?

@Milkmansdaughter is currently doing this to convert a space to a flower garden...just laying down a thick layer of hay on lawn. I think she threw some mulch under there too, not sure. By next spring that space ought to yield her some LOVELY flowers. She seems to have good soil on her land anyway, so the hay will surely enhance that.

 

[canesisters]

Another question - since hay rots so quickly, do you dig down to the original soil when you plant or do you plant in the hay/mulch? I'm just thinking about the SBG where we planted in a bit of soil set into the straw and let the straw rot around the seedlings.

 

[Beekissed]

Another question - since hay rots so quickly, do you dig down to the original soil when you plant or do you plant in the hay/mulch? I'm just thinking about the SBG where we planted in a bit of soil set into the straw and let the straw rot around the seedlings.

I've done both this year. On the soil I usually get down to the soil and plant a seedling or seed. Then I also planted seedlings directly into rotting bales with good results.

 

[Finding God in the garden]

Has anyone here used grass clippings as mulch? I have a predominately Bermuda grass property as well as crabgrass, fescue, wild blackberry, and other weeds. I'm wondering if I can put these type of grass clippings over the top of my wood chips or will it cause an invasion of these plants?

 

[baymule]

Has anyone here used grass clippings as mulch? I have a predominately Bermuda grass property as well as crabgrass, fescue, wild blackberry, and other weeds. I'm wondering if I can put these type of grass clippings over the top of my wood chips or will it cause an invasion of these plants?

This is coming from someone who has Bermuda, crab grass, giant ragweed, lambs quarters, wild sunflower, nut grass, trumpet flower, and other various weeds in the garden.....AND I put down cardboard with wood chips on top in a lot of the garden. The answer to your question is YES! YOU WILL BE PLANTING THE SEEDS AND GIVING THEM A LOVELY HOME IN YOUR GARDEN!! Compost them first, preferably with some animal manure to heat it up. After composting, it should be ok.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree. Those invasive grasses don't even spread by seed but by those ugly nodes and joints along the roots and shafts, so no matter how cut up they are, they have a place from which to take root. The more you cut them up, the more potential things to take root.

Had never seen nut grass on this place in the 42 yrs we've owned it, but just a few bags of imported grass clippings placed on various garden beds and compost layers was enough to have it growing all over this place now.

Looks like this....

 

[flowerbug]

Has anyone here used grass clippings as mulch? I have a predominately Bermuda grass property as well as crabgrass, fescue, wild blackberry, and other weeds. I'm wondering if I can put these type of grass clippings over the top of my wood chips or will it cause an invasion of these plants?

i avoid grass clippings if i can help it because of the spreading of grass seeds is the one thing in the gardens that i don't want any longer. we have our current gardens almost completely grass free for a change and i'd like to keep it that ways. the less formal gardens i'll put anything into because i know i'll be having to weed them anyways. a grass plant is as good a weed as any other.

right now the major pest i'm weeding is wood sorrel. i have tons of it in one garden. it's taking me a while to get through it as i'm sorting the yellow long stringy clover i don't like out from it and also taking off the seed pods before i return the plant as mulch to the surface. when i get to areas where there are fewer clover plants to sort through it goes faster.

no weeding today, it's raining...

 

[digitS']

I track Kentucky bluegrass into my gardens.

That grass isn't the problem that others can be and I'm not as quick to try to remedy it.

It really isn't easy to see that my lawn is reseeding itself. However, the bluegrass is so short that some of the plants dodge the mower blade and are obviously doing that. And, I carry a few seeds around on my shoes, now and then.

We had commercial bluegrass seed farms around here years ago and I once carried 2 bales of straw into my garden to use as mulch along one side. BIG mistake. I planted a lawn!

Steve

 

[Finding God in the garden]

I've found 6 or so tomato hornworms on my tomato plant over the past few days. They are good at camouflage! Are their horns poisonous or dangerous?