I’m going to open with “any improvement is still improvement.” I didn’t get as much done as I wanted 🙁
I spent time in the garden today, it only took three hours of bushwhacking to get to my northernmost bed. I seriously need to do something about all the wireweed growing out there. Maybe 1-800-Rent-a-Goat?
So I started with the northenmost bed, I call “#1” since it was my first. Its the bed that has been out there the longest, so in my mind, should have the most complex, rich s soil. (I think I”m kidding myself, #2 has MUCH better looking soil.) The last crop it held (before the weeds) was peppers, cilantro, chives, and onions. Oddly enough, some of the onions and chives were still growing, so I planned on saving them.
My plan was to pull the weeds, level out the soil, cover it with newspaper to act as a weed block, cover it with rabbit manure, then cover it all with hay, and wetting each layer as I added them.
Here is how it went:
The overgrown bed
Adding newspaper to try to help block out the weeds. Yes, that’s a West Virginia paper, the Pennsboro News!
Wetting the newspaper to hold it in place.
The rabbit manure, straight from beneath the rabbit cages. This is like black gold to me!
There is already life thriving in the manure as it breaks down.
The manure over top of the wet newspaper. Not the green at the top end of the picture, this is the anions and chives. I kept them as they were, though I may thing them a bit to allow the mt o grow larger.
Ready for the hay mulch. I use hay because it adds nutrients to the soil as it breaks down, and also helps retain moisture through out the day.
So that’s what I accomplished, as far as the garden beds go. I’ll be planting in it later in the week. This will get watered three times a day (timer), and gradually break down the newspaper, rabbit manure, and hay into more lovely soil, the kind you cannot find in most of Florida. This bed tends to be the “coolest” since it get shade from the other two that are located south of this one. This means I try to plant my cooler weather crop in this one. As of right now, I’m not sure what I want to plant in it, my guess will be cilantro again as a minimum.
I’ll update as I get more done. I have five total beds, all are in various stages of being overgrown.
This should be fun 😛
Peace,
db
Overgrown or not I’m jelous. I missed out on gardening this year due to my apartment management ripping out my beds and half ass putting down mulch. This is what prompted my house hunting.
James, do you have any patio space that gets sunlight? I have a pending post that may address your needs, at least partially.
Easy to build, low-cost, and almost maintains itself…bacon not included…
I’ll see about getting it together and posted this week.
db
DB, you might want to look at beds that get more light in the winter, they will be cool enough this time of year, however they may not get enough light to really drive production. I planted a month ago or so, and I was having a horrible time with squash/stink bugs, I hand pick them nearly daily.
I’m in the process of digging out 1 of my beds, I’ve got some bad soil mojo going on in there. The started plants from HD die, no seeds sprout, and grass has a hard time growing, I’m gonna take that as a big hint.
They seem to be getting plenty of light, I just stagger my plants from bed to bed according to light requirements.
I’ve found that giant sunflowers make a magnificent trap crop to lure the squash bugs and leaf-legged bugs away. Its very easy to pick them off the flowers at night.
What is the source of the soil? BlueTang had a similar problem with manure he purchased at Home Depot…at least we think that’s the culprit…
Cool post man, I love the looks of that manure. That is black gold. Best stuff you could probably get.
One of my moments of pride is looking at the soil I’ve developed in my raised beds….