Creating beds without cutting sod...

Can we do this with our raised beds at the end of the season as well?? (cover and "bake" that is...)
 
I had several areas in the grassy yard where just dug holes, added my tomato plants, placed newspapers all over the grass around it, then topped with a thick layer of duck compost. I had my best tomato harvest ever last year doing this. Grass popped up in a few spots. More newspaper and more duck compost took care of it.

The area I used to grow tomatoes last year is now growing a 3 sisters garden. No tilling required.

The only risk of planting like this is cut worms. We don't have any, but if it is an issue in your area, a small tin foil collar around the base of the transplant will keep them from mowing down your plants.
 
nachoqtpie said:
Can we do this with our raised beds at the end of the season as well?? (cover and "bake" that is...)
Click to expand...
Hmmm.

Technically speaking, "possibly". It depends where you live and when "end of season" is. For most people tho by the time the full garden season is over, it's too late in the year for solarizing to do much good. (Exception: if you live somewhere REALLY southern, or if we're just talking about one or two individual beds that finish useful production in midsummer and you decide to 'fallow' them under clear plastic)

But realistically, I'm having trouble thinking of why you would WANT to solarize a raised bed, unless you got a Known Persistant Nasty Disease Or Pest That's Susceptible To Solarizing in it. (Which most people don't, and since this is your first year gardening, I'm sure you don't have). Remember that solarizing does disrupt the chemical and biological and to a lesser extent structural elements of the soil; it is useful if you have a REASON for it but not something you'd do just for fun.

Maybe for a persistant seedbank of annoying weeds, I suppose? Not for perennials -- once the garden has been cultivated for a season it'd be easy and FAR more effective to just dig the bed over and remove the roots by hand.

Pat
 
No... we have some grass and whatnot that we missed when we tilled for the beds. You think it would make better sense to just hand till and pull the weeds then?

I'm fighting a constant battle of grass popping up here, there, and everywhere it seems like in this poor lil garden!! LOL

We sure did do a lot of stuff not so right this year, eh? LOL
 
nachoqtpie said:
No... we have some grass and whatnot that we missed when we tilled for the beds. You think it would make better sense to just hand till and pull the weeds then?
Click to expand...
Absolutely :)


Pat
 
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