Sloooowly I turn.... (with pics)

[Wisher1000]

I posted these pics in another thread but it was the wrong one. My apologies if you have already seen them.

I am doing my own thing with sheet composting. I guess I get impatient. I created a bed early last fall up against a block wall in my backyard that is only 20' from my house. I lined it with smaller blocks and covered the grass and weeds inside the bed with 6 or 7 layers of newspaper. Through the winter and spring I filled the bed with anything I could find to compost. Grass clippings, dead leaves, pulled weeds, chicken manure and horse manure. I wasn't able to do anything with it till mid summer when I noticed that the material had broken down from approximately 10" to about 2" over the whole bed. This I raked into one end and started again filling the remainder of the bed with compost material. Of course, since I had a nice prepared bed I HAD to plant something there, so in mid August I planted some bedding plants and tomatoes. I am hoping that the blocks will retain some heat and extend my growing season long enough to see some tomatoes this fall. Do you think that is possible?

 

[digitS']

Wisher, that looks great!

So, what we are seeing here has been in process for about 12 months. Photo #1 is the right side, photo #2 is left side, & #3 is the center of that bed. Your bed on the left side (#2) is still in the process of filling with compostables for future use.

Have I got that right? I don't think you were too impatient in planting something. Last fall until August is quite a long time. The plants sure look like they appreciate the location.

I will start another thread later with some pictures of something, somewhat similar at the edge of my veggie garden. Nothing attractive about it - just a process in composting.

Alabama is a long way from here. I'd better let others comment on tomato growing during an Alabama autumn.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Sounds like a good plan. Nature hates bare soil. If you don't plant something there she will.

 

[lesa]

Not sure how much heat the wall will hold- but it certainly looks beautiful! I just can't stand to see a bare spot! If there is dirt, I will plant something there! Just can't help it....

 

[April Manier]

You are sheet mulching for the purpose of composting or keeping out weeds? LOL

My sheet mulch is for the growth of as close to nothing as I can achieve here in Oregon. But I am intrigued by the idea of "sheet composting" in an area I want to reclaim....

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Wisher1000]

Digits - Thank you and Yes, the bed is 36' long and goes from 0' on each end to to 5 1/2' deep (wide?) in the middle. If you look closely, there are T-posts holding up bird netting to keep the chickens out. The area that is planted is just over 1/3 of the whole length of the bed. All of the material on the right end is the result of the whole area's (approximately 44 sqft of area) compost for almost a year. I filled the bed with the layers over several months and when weeds started growing, I raked it all to the right end. I held it in place with carpet scraps! Now I am layering in again and actually there is about 4" in there already. I will again move (turn) it when weeds start to grow. I am interested in your pics and would like to see what you are doing at the edge of your veggie garden. I won't mind at all if you want to post them here.

April - I am doing both! I have borrowed from what I have read on "Lasagna Garening," "No Dig Gardening," and "sheet composting," and started just putting my compost materials down where I want planting beds. Our house was built on VERY sandy soil and I am starting from scratch with landscaping. The first year I concentrated on grass to keep the sand from washing away, now I am putting in beds, one or two at a time on top of the grass/weeds. Turning the compost in is a pain so I don't do much of that. The beds have a sandy base and the "black gold" is sitting on top! As I put in plants, I will amend the sand at the bottom of the hole I dig for each plant, but most of the roots are within a couple of inches of the surface and rarely deeper than 10 inches, anyway. If it is a brand new bed, I start with a thick (8 - 10) layers of wet newspaper to kill the grass and weeds and then pile on whatever I can get my hands on. I have been known to pick up someone's bagged leaves from the curbside and bring them home to go between the manure layers and grass clippings. I don't even mind cutting grass so much when I know that the clippings will go into my new beds! Then I don't turn it until I see weeds start to grow and that is just to pile all the compost into one area that is then ready to plant. The other great part is, if the weeds get a foothold and raking the compost is hard, just add another thick layer of newspaper and grass clippings and you're all tidy for another couple of months!

Hoodat - Yes, mother nature does love to garden! Notice that she already put in some little sprouts along the front edge of the bed where I failed to cover the ground! I only had a little pine straw to use as mulch and had to spread it a bit thin to make it cover. I'll pull those next time I take down the netting. They only appeared after the rain we got on Monday and Tuesday.

Lesa - Thanks, I have heard that if you plant your early spring bulbs (jonquils, crocus, etc.) up against a brick wall, they will bloom even earlier due to the heat exchange from the wall. I am hoping that will also hold true for the tomatoes in the fall. We'll see, as of now, I only have a few blooms so it is highly unlikely that they will have time to mature. Maybe I can have some nice fried green tomatoes for Thanksgiving. I usually don't mind taking out my tomato plants in the fall because they are all ugly and spent. This year they will be just reaching their peak and I will be so sad to yank them out! The good news is that I haven't seen the first tomato horn worm!

 

[hoodat]

You may want to check out the permaculture forum. There is a lot of good info on sheet composting there.
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums

 

[CalicoFarm]

This is off topic, but what are the purple flowers in the pictures? They are beautifull.

 

[so lucky]

Yeah, what are those purple flowers? They remind me of a daisy-like annual called stachy-something, never bought them so I can't remember the name, but if that is what they are, and that is their normal growth, I'm getting some!

 

[lesa]

They look like purple asters to me???