Baymule’s 2019 Garden

[baymule]

Even snow doesn’t kill weeds.

 

[seedcorn]

I really feel for you Bay .
Shoveling tons of snow over year round gardening is sounding almost magical now .

At least we can put on better winter clothes. In heat, once naked andstill hot, there is nothing else to do but burn.....no pix please...

 

[thistlebloom]

At least we can put on better winter clothes. In heat, once naked andstill hot, there is nothing else to do but burn.....no pix please...

Hahaha! That's so funny!

Off topic, but I have weakness for buying winter jackets and my closet is full. Like NYboy and shoes but I don't store them in the oven.

 

[thistlebloom]

Even snow doesn’t kill weeds.

True that, but I don't have to stand there and watch them grow either, haha.

 

[seedcorn]

Even snow doesn’t kill weeds.

Wrong...it kills them. It’s just they leave their offspring to restart when heat comes back. Plus we get to plan for next year while you get no break and go 24/7/52.....

 

[baymule]

You can put on enough clothes to stay warm, but you can’t take off enough clothes to stay cool. Although when I come in the house soaking wet with sweat and hit the AC, it’s cold!

Hahaha! That's so funny!

Off topic, but I have weakness for buying winter jackets and my closet is full. Like NYboy and shoes but I don't store them in the oven.

Because you actually use your oven to prepare food!

 

[seedcorn]

My aunt (God rest her soul) would correct you. Animals sweat, people perspire.......

 

[flowerbug]

the point about tilling vs. low till is very appropriate to think about if you have surface annuals that have dropped seeds.

you can greatly reduce your seed bank of weed seeds by digging a pretty deep hole and then scraping the surface layer of the surrounding area into that hole and then burying it. it does disturb the soil somewhat, but it does not disturb the whole garden and it works very well to recover an otherwise overweedy area.

i've done it, it does work, like all techniques it isn't perfect, but it helps. same as smothering with cardboard may not be perfect but it can help.

i wish i could have documented how we recovered the North Garden this past few months as i used three methods together and it's done. i just hope i don't get injured again to where i can't keep after it enough this fall and next spring. i have a lot of transplants i want to do this fall to help cover the edges up with thyme (we have a lot of it in other places i can move chunks of it). anything i can do to cover those edges before they start regrowing more weeds... i don't mind weeding the thyme as it smells pretty good and it looks so much nicer than bare dirt.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I've been trying to keep the soil very well mulched or sow down something specifically to act as a cover crop. The first one I used was a weed/herb called Herb Robert after it turned up here and I noticed other weeds werent sprouting. Its one I also use to make the convovulus grow upwards.

In winter I literally had to sow something for cover crops cos I was working 7 days a week and with our mild winters things just got out of hand real fast. I use a mix of brassicas just because they happen to grow well, grow tall, feed the bees and are easy to remove when I need the space.

I was foraging for fallen leaves down by the back of the local high school, I think these are London Plane but I'm not sure. Nice big leaves that lie flat once the rain hits them. I need to start doing that again in Fall.

Cos I havent had time to make composts, just about everything is scattered over the beds except for seedy weeds which either get dumped in a 200liter drum of water to rot down or in the trash- Oxalis and things like convovulus roots and vines are hung up on something to dry out completely til I just Know they are not going to regrow.

 

[flowerbug]

I've been trying to keep the soil very well mulched or sow down something specifically to act as a cover crop. The first one I used was a weed/herb called Herb Robert after it turned up here and I noticed other weeds werent sprouting. Its one I also use to make the convovulus grow upwards.

In winter I literally had to sow something for cover crops cos I was working 7 days a week and with our mild winters things just got out of hand real fast. I use a mix of brassicas just because they happen to grow well, grow tall, feed the bees and are easy to remove when I need the space.

I was foraging for fallen leaves down by the back of the local high school, I think these are London Plane but I'm not sure. Nice big leaves that lie flat once the rain hits them. I need to start doing that again in Fall.

Cos I havent had time to make composts, just about everything is scattered over the beds except for seedy weeds which either get dumped in a 200liter drum of water to rot down or in the trash- Oxalis and things like convovulus roots and vines are hung up on something to dry out completely til I just Know they are not going to regrow.

we have several different kinds of oxalis here. some will go to seed at even a very tiny stage of growth which means they can flower, set and drop seeds when growing between two small stones in a pathway. and then there are others that won't set seeds until they are 8-10 inches tall, it just depends upon where they are... my method for dealing with them is to try to scrape them early enough or to weed them from the pathway gravel before they can drop seeds. in a garden if they have seeds on them and it isn't too many pods i will pull the plant and remove just the pods and then leave the rest of the plant on the surface to dry out in the sun and become worm food. i don't like to waste any organic materials here if i can help it. these plants don't come back from that treatment very often if i get the plants removed before they've sent out other roots. a few quick skims and they're done.

in the north garden where i had many thousand oxalis plants drop seeds the past few years i had to skim the surface layer of soil into deep enough holes and bury it, eventually the worms will take care of those seeds, but i will probably be weeding it out of there and the rest of the gardens here for the rest of my life anyways. it's always popping up in places with those tiny seeds getting washed by rains around to other spots to hide out. at least it isn't sow thistle...