What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

finished up one of the gardens inside the fence (at last!). it's about 500-600square feet space and had plenty of weeds in there since i'd neglected it after we'd harvested the last tomatoes. Mom had spent some time about a month ago getting all the stakes and tomato cages out of there and pulling the plants so it was mostly ready to be trenched and all the garden debris and weeds buried. while it does have a lot of oxalis in there at times it is overall gradually imrpoving as far as weeds go in there. like this time i only had two very tiny clumps of grass roots that went to the weed pile. everything else got buried right there in the garden.

 

[Zeedman]

must be some nice garden soil by now. why are you sifting the ashes?

What began as reddish-black, hard-to-work clay loam is now black & easy-to-work. And because I try to add more to the soil each year than what I'm taking out of it, the fertility continues to improve.

Sadly, my rural garden seems to be going in the opposite direction. It began as much more fertile than the home gardens; but since I have been unable to add enough organic matter for 6000 square feet, the tilth has gradually been declining. The reduction in organic matter may be contributing to the drainage issues there. I purchased my leaf vac in hope of collecting enough leaves to improve that soil, and had an opportunity to do so... but that time was spent this year in moving soil instead. Who knows... leaf drop is so late this year, that another opportunity may yet present itself. The strong winds being forecast for tomorrow should bring down most of the leaves that remain, and a lot of the yards locally are still leaf-covered. Knock, knock... "could I clean up your leaves for you? No charge, just happy to help".

The reason I sift the ashes is because I'm separating any unburnt wood, charcoal, and the clay/cement plugs from spent fireworks (whose remains are also burned there). And because the burn pit contains screws, nails, staples, etc. from burnt planks, crates, pallets, or old furniture, I run a strong magnet over the sifting tray to pull out any iron.

just be glad you're not hauling it by wheelbarrow and buckets. i did that for about 30 yards of topsoil, sand, compost and pea gravel. it was a lot of work but now at least it doesn't flash flood in that part of the fenced gardens.

You moved 30 yards of material with a wheel barrow??? A lot of work indeed, you're a better man than I am Charlie Brown... and/or a lot sorer. Makes my back hurt just thinking about such a task, I'm guessing it was done gradually over time.

 

[seedcorn]

Does the town collect leaves? I’m sure they would gladly drop a truck load off on your garden.

 

[digitS']

a lot of the yards locally are still leaf-covered

I am a firm believer in the value of pine needles as a good amendment for my high-pH soil. The Organic Gardening Encyclopedia says that they have nearly as much nitrogen as cow manure. Raking lawns in small parks almost became a tradition . I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be out there but I've never been stopped. (Drove by a small park with many trees yesterday early morning and the workers had gathered half the leaves and needles the day before. They were piled about 18" deep on the other half of the ground.)

Having said that. Our big veggie garden would require several dump truckloads to make much difference, not a few plastic bags full. Are cover crops for yyou not an option?

they would gladly drop a truck load off

The arborists also ... Although, wood chips may not be quite what you are looking for.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

What began as reddish-black, hard-to-work clay loam is now black & easy-to-work. And because I try to add more to the soil each year than what I'm taking out of it, the fertility continues to improve.

if i could do more cover cropping the gardens would do a lot better here too. i have some prime garden soil being wasted right now because i couldn't get the whole area cleared, but at least i reclaimed about 1/4 of it this past year. now i hope i can do a few feet each year and keep it under control. more bean growing space, but it is outside the fences so at risk of some damage from critters. i found out last year that the deer and groundhogs might trample or eat some of the plants but they're still productive enough so we'll do it again this coming year.

Sadly, my rural garden seems to be going in the opposite direction. It began as much more fertile than the home gardens; but since I have been unable to add enough organic matter for 6000 square feet, the tilth has gradually been declining. The reduction in organic matter may be contributing to the drainage issues there. I purchased my leaf vac in hope of collecting enough leaves to improve that soil, and had an opportunity to do so... but that time was spent this year in moving soil instead. Who knows... leaf drop is so late this year, that another opportunity may yet present itself. The strong winds being forecast for tomorrow should bring down most of the leaves that remain, and a lot of the yards locally are still leaf-covered. Knock, knock... "could I clean up your leaves for you? No charge, just happy to help".

The reason I sift the ashes is because I'm separating any unburnt wood, charcoal, and the clay/cement plugs from spent fireworks (whose remains are also burned there). And because the burn pit contains screws, nails, staples, etc. from burnt planks, crates, pallets, or old furniture, I run a strong magnet over the sifting tray to pull out any iron.

ah! ok, makes sense to me now. i didn't know there were other things in there besides just the ashes themselves.

You moved 30 yards of material with a wheel barrow??? A lot of work indeed, you're a better man than I am Charlie Brown... and/or a lot sorer. Makes my back hurt just thinking about such a task, I'm guessing it was done gradually over time.

i did it over about 3 weeks back in 2010 when i changed the tulip gardens yet again. i was trying to improve their drainage and was tired of having so many tulips die out from the poor conditions. i had set aside so much $ and time, dug up all the tulips and put them into storage, ordered a bunch of new ones too so i had them ready for replanting.

the landscaping company was really reasonable on the hauling charges so that was good i just had them back in and dump in whatever pile i needed, either sand, topsoil or pea gravel. i did have them mix some compost into the topsoil but it turned out that was a huge mistake as the compost was full of ground up trash of all sorts. i'm still picking that out of some gardens. won't repeat that mistake...

 

[flowerbug]

we can use wood chips here and i'll take them if i can get them. we even have a spot for people to back in and dump. we redid the front gardens 2 years ago so they are good for now for a few more years before we'll do it again. i use any of the partially or fully decayed wood chips from underneath in the veggie gardens as humus. all the clay gardens do better when i can get that added.

cover crops would be appreciated here by me, but Mom doesn't like them so i have to find ways of doing what i need to do without those. it reduces how fast the gardens improve here by about half. the other thing with cover crops is they do help with keeping weeds down.

 

[digitS']

When I began to downsize, I had this clever cover crop idea of field peas early, sunflowers midseason, and oats to winter-kill.

It had been many years since I was in the farming game so I wasn't sure where I would find some of this seed locally but it was already midseason and sunflower seed was easy. What a mess! I didn't even do a good job killing the 2' high plants with the tiller. Pulled plants by hand later - which was a much better idea than using the tiller.

Since the tractor guy shows up in the fall on his own schedule and comes late, oats wouldn't work well. The tiller would probably have the same problem with peas if they needed to be tilled under in early June.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@Zeedman , I will be using my bag mower Saturday at DD's house. They have all of these tall maples and others and the leaves blanket their corner lot. Last year I mowed with my bag mower and filled up paper lawn & leaf bags, so I could transport back.
@digitS' You probably have lots more pine needles than we do. HOWEVER I have a few pine trees that shed in the fall and blanket the lawn N and NE of the house, including depositing in my gutters!
As I understand BOTH are really good free fertilizer, but pine needles take a lot longer to decompose. I understand that while they decompose that will leach nitrogen from the soil. I wonder if you could bury them?

 

[ducks4you]

Cleaned a stall and dumped in my big garden, that I tilled yesterday. I have more to add to it, but I intend to till this and some food scraps, etc. in this week, or early next week, and put this bed to rest for Spring.

 

[digitS']

@ducks4you ,

I've never tried just burying pine needles in the garden.

They usually start out as an insulating mulch through the winter months. Then, they go in compost, piled in with kitchen scraps and half decomposed stuff from earlier months.

Steve