Baymule’s 2020 Garden

[flowerbug]

Well I have to tell you, most years I just let them go. They generally get over my head by August and I make a trail through them to get to the "pickin' part" of the garden. After everything is exhausted, I turn the sheep in on it and they decimate the weeds. This year I'm trying to grow all I can, so no plant and water and to heck with the weeds. I wish the garden plants grew like the weeds do!

as long as you can knock 'em back before they can drop fresh seeds you're not harming anything by letting them grow. bare ground is hotter ground. i'd rather have a plant growing than not - even if it is a weed - at least for a while. the hard part for me is to get back to all of the gardens to get the weeds that don't have seeds on them disturbed before they start flowering and setting seeds.

in my constant efforts to get rid of oxalis and a few other weeds permanently it is really tough. some of them grow and set seeds so quickly that i pretty much have to get after them as soon as i see them no matter what. and yes, i mean i've been out there weeding in December and January sometimes if the weather has allowed because some of these are really quick. some grasses we have will set seeds any month you let them if the weather will let them grow at all.

 

[baymule]

Back in the garden pulled and digging weeds this morning. This is between the the Kentucky Wonder beans and the Asian long beans.

Before

After

This is the row between the Asian long beans and the tomato trellis. I guess y’all see the clumps of Black Eyed Susans I leave in the garden. I enjoy their bright cheery flowers.

Before

After

 

[baymule]

After weeding these I dug a crab grass mat next to the short tomato trellis. My husband was working on the driveway with the tractor. By this time it was 11:00, HOT, we were done. LOL a shower and now soaking up the air conditioning.

 

[henless]

Bay, you're one hard working woman! Love the black eyed susans you left. So pretty!

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

That looks wonderful! It's crazy how fast weeds grow and can get our of control. Have you noticed that the weeds that grow next to any plant seem to resemble that plant? I feel like I've lost my mind but I have been noticing similar leaf shapes on the weed and your vegetable plant.

 

[Marie2020]

I have so much to learn about soil, I really do not have a clue how to make clay soil funtion. Going to get what I need to direct me soon, to measure acid and alkaline etc. Hope you didn't mind me joining in, hopefully I will learn a thing or two by reading all you are putting in here

 

[flowerbug]

I have so much to learn about soil, I really do not have a clue how to make clay soil funtion. Going to get what I need to direct me soon, to measure acid and alkaline etc. Hope you didn't mind me joining in, hopefully I will learn a thing or two by reading all you are putting in here

@baymule has almost all sand at her place.

we have almost all clay here as our primary subsoil. in some places we've brought in sand and then topsoil as fill (it was needed out front for the septic drain field). as it worked out for the gardens where i do most of my vegetable growing they are out back in the lowest spot where there is still primarily the mostly clay subsoil. the easiest thing they could have done had they known they were going to be doing as much gardening back there was to bring in some dump trucks full of topsoil and bring the whole area up and give it better soil to work with. it's been a lot of work to improve the drainage and to deal with the water that comes off the neighboring property and to bring in more topsoil and sand when i did have the funds for it (but i only got part of the gardens done before i ran out of money, energy and time).

over the years i've amended so many gardens here with some sand and any extra organic material i can find. some gardens now have pretty good soil down about a foot. i'd like better drainage but that would mean another foot's worth and i'll never have that kind of time.

mainly i just keep out of the gardens when they get too wet as much as i can. i have an extra pair of gardening shoes for when i do have to walk in the mud and i keep a big dull butter knife or a trowel handy to scrape the mud off everything when i'm done. i mostly do low-till gardening so i'm not often disturbing the garden very deeply at all. i have a stirrup hoe that gets used as much as i can (it chops off weeds and i leave them to dry on the surface so they eventually get eaten up by any worms).

for newer gardens with more drainage issues i perch rows up a bit so the plants aren't too wet all the time. we have flash floods here when the rains are heavy so i do need to keep that in my considerations at all times.

 

[baymule]

@Marie2020 I have pure white sugar sand. Think beach without the ocean. This is my 6th garden here and we have worked hard to build humus in the soil.

I have Purple Hull peas coming up!!

 

[seedcorn]

They look good.

As @baymule has shown with time, mulch and effort any soil can be turned around. Takes patience as it’s not a throw $$$ at it problem-unless you can afford to buy good Iowa soil....

 

[Ridgerunner]

to measure acid and alkaline etc.

The pH tells you the acidity/alkalinity of your soil. For most vegetables the target range is 6.0 to 6.5. That measures how well the nutrients in your soil are used by your plants. The roots absorbing the nutrients is a chemical reaction, that's as complicated as I want to get. Chemistry was never a favorite subject of mine.

Here in the US we can get a soils analysis, usually through what we all the local county extension service. Your government agricultural ministry might be able to help if you aren't already lined up for that. The soils analysis tells us pH but also information about what essential nutrients are present or missing. In your clay soil you should have most of the nutrients you need but it's good to know where you stand.

Then you have the tilth of the soil. That's a measure of how easy it is to work and has a lot to do with moisture retention and drainage. At one extreme is sand, doesn't hold moisture at all and does not stick together. The other extreme is a clay. Does not drain at all and is really sticky when wet. It dries hard like a sun-dried brick, worse when disturbed while wet. The opposite of easy to work. The best soils are called loam, which is a combination of sand, clay, and organic matter. And of course there are other possibilities, like silt or loess. Most soils are a combination of these.

The best way to improve the tilth of sand or clay is to add compost or organic material that will break down into compost. That helps sand retain moisture. It helps clays drain better and handle better. Almost every one of us on here has a compost pile of some sort but that usually doesn't generate enough compost for us. Some of us might buy more. Many of us mulch with an organic material, which helps weed suppression, moisture retention, and cools the soil during really hot weather but as it breaks down it adds organic content to the soil. Straw, wood chips, dried leaves, grass clippings, lots of different organic mulches. Where you have four seasons it's pretty common to empty out a chicken coop, stable, or barn onto the garden in the fall, by spring time it's broken down enough for you to plant. Some people get horse poop from a nearby stable. Lots of creative ways to get organic matter into the soil. Yes, you are on a forum where we talk about animal poop, some people get excited by that.