Leaf Mulch Experiment: Take II....

So, here is round 2 of my experiment with leaf mulch. The plants in this photo were mulched when they were 2in tall and the corn is almost waist high as of today. The winter squash has blossoms all over it is and is invading the beds around it! I had to prune them back or they would have taken over the beans which are over 5ft away (and it still June!)

Now on to the unmulched section....appears to be a bit different situation over here: nary a bloom to be seen and the corn is only knee high.

Needless to say, that even without the zucchini results, this is pretty exciting. Next year I am going to test soybeans, green beens, and cucumbers (maybe more). I imagine I am going to find something that prefers the bare dirt, but we shall see.

No more radishes...

The radishes did their normal change to woody/stringy (even the goats wrinkle their noses) a few weeks ago and (procrastinator that I am) I just finished pulling the remainder. So, I decided to recover that area this morning. Here is the method to my madness (yes there is one!): I first used my little cultivating tool to loosen the dirt and mix in a 5 gallon bucket of aged compost per square yard (give or take). This was followed up with chipped leaves layered ~6in deep. I then covered the leaves with coffee filters, newspaper (~10+ pages thick)...

...coffee grounds...

...and finally grass clippings. I missed adding manure before the leaves, so I will be sure to hit the other cold weather crop areas (lettuce, etc) with the full regiment so I can have the soil tested to see if manure makes a huge difference (I am hoping the difference is negligible because it is a pain to collect manure on a grand scale and the smell is a bit much for me).

My plan is to make a cold frame (or 3) and plant this area with beets, kale, etc this fall. Surely the worms will do their job and when I pull back the top layer of mulch in September - I will discover a bed of worm casting and black humus ready to sustain my plants through the winter.

Potatoes and squash!

I happened to walk past a patch of my red potatoes and noticed that they were...huge! They are almost 3ft high and are bloomed out with white and pink blossoms. I can only hope that the action below the surface matches the growth explosion up top. It is fairly certain that the manure and leftover bags of leaves that I happened to dump in this spot last summer are to blame. Of course, my first clue should have been that the soil was almost the color of the coffee (the kind you make to fill your thermos before you go ice fishing) when I tilled it up to plant this spring.

I am also seeing the astounding results of my "leaf mulch - no leaf mulch" experiment. The zucchini plants to the left were mulched heavily with chipped leaves as soon as they had grown 2 in tall, while the ones to the right were not mulched. This is a pretty clear indication that I need to keep up with the mulching and will reap great rewards in the future.

The mulched plants will be producing by the end of the week, while the other plants aren't even close to blooming yet. Needless to say, I mulched both sets today!

I also added an additional 15 bags of grass this evening. This brings the total up to 98 bags and hopefully I will probably have the garden done in 2 weeks. From there it will just be a matter of adding a few bags a week throughout the summer to maintain.

Garden goodies: Kohlrabi - In addition to the stem, I added some of the smaller greens (the large ones are goat food at best) to my salad this evening. I liked the added zest, but the proper balance is definitely 2-3 leaves shredded in a large, dinner plate sized salad.

Be sure to peel the skin off of the stem...

Milkweeds and more!

Today was a busy day! I started off by pulling 5 wheelbarrow loads of milkweed plants out of the pasture. I can testify that these are some nasty plants and even though I had chemical gloves on, the milk splattered onto my bare skin (am pretty sure this is a bad thing, even though I can't find anything on the internets about it...). So, I usually just burn these things prior to the pods bursting, but decided to compost the "non-seed" parts of the plants this time around. Needless to say, I ended up topping off one of my compost bins today after I covered the weeds with coffee grounds and grass clippings. The seed heads ended up in the trusty burn barrel where they will sit for a couple of days and finally meet their demise via some gas and a match. I also observed that the flowers must have some type of intoxicating effect on honey bees...they didn't want to come off the flowers and after I finally shook them loose, they rolled around on the ground buzzing unhappily. Of course, they were not too thrilled to discover they were no longer juiced when they finally snapped out of their high and decided to take it out on me. Non of them were able to didn't sting me, but not for lack of trying...I was just a bit quicker in flicking them off than they were in implanting their stinger.

Alas, I spend the rest of the day trying to finish up mulching the bags of grass I collected early this morning, but had to take a pit stop to trade my boat for a '82 VW Rabbit (Diesel, 50MPG) and will be spending my non-garden time working on getting the little fuel saver into working order. I would blog more about this, but since this is "my garden blog" and not "my working old cars blog", I will refrain (as much as possible). Back to mulching, I was able to add 14 more bags of grass to the garden and estimate that I am not about half way done. I always rue the lack of space in my garden when planting, but in times like this I realize that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the mulch in a larger area.

I have to work long into the night the way it is....

Garden goodies: Kohlrabi, Raspberries

Praying for dill...

So, I have been watching my recently mulched beds, praying that the dill would make it. Apparently it is hardy enough to push through...and looks stronger than ever! I really love dill, not just for the seasoning or in our jars of pickles, but especially as bug and slug control. It seems that dill does far more than just keep the slugs from eating the other plants, but apparently keeps aphids and caterpillars away as well. Just this morning, I noticed a few of the cabbage white butterflies fluttering above my kohlrabi and other greens and after watching them for a while, it became abundantly clear that they were avoiding all plants anywhere near the dill. I was more than a little thrilled by this particular discovery (of course I googled it as soon as I came in the house, only to discover that I am apparently I am one of the few people who had no idea that the dill plant held such magical powers) and so I will begin seeding dill in with my greens in greater abundance next year!

In between staring at butterflies and pondering dill magic, I added 23 more bags of grass to the garden this morning - which brings my total for the year to 70.

So, I sat back and looked at the scenery and decided to do a little "mulching math" - so here's how it goes:

Added so far in 2007:
600 bags of leaves (which I chipped of course)
70 bags of grass clippings
10 5-gallon buckets of coffee grounds per week

So lets put this into pounds:
1 bag of leaves ~20lbs (600*20) = 12,000 lbs of chipped leaves
1 bag of grass ~30lbs (70*30) = 2,100 lbs of grass
1 bucket of grounds ~40lbs (10*40) = 400lbs per week (400*24) = 9,600 lbs of grounds

At first I thought that this sounded a bit excessive, but I know that the worms are eating most of it and turning it into nice castings for me. The earthworms in my garden are more than abundant and with the amount of material they can consume, it is apparent that I am barely keeping up! Subsequently, I am actively looking at ways to feed the worm population, while directing their attention away from the top few layers of mulch. Living in a "desert" provides for a constant battle to ensure a good level of moisture to the entire garden, so keeping mulch on the garden is key. I need to find a better way to keep the worms happily making compost for me, while keeping them from eating the grass clippings as fast as I can add them....

Guineas in the Garden

Since I didn't accomplish much in the garden today (I ran out of newspaper), I spent the evening at the recycle bins down the street replenishing my stores. I usually have a couple 50 gallon drums loaded, but haven't kept them full since the weather turned warmer. I suppose I need to spend more of those cold days performing this task so I don't have to miss out on this nice spring weather.

Yes, as you can see, I have two guinea fowl to keep down the bugs - not only in the garden, but also the flies from the horses and cows. The first couple of years we lived here, we were without these fine birds and the flies were unbearable (and by "unbearable", I mean the 4th plague of Egypt unbearable), but the guineas seem to hit the flies, yellow jackets, and all manner of flying insects as soon as they land or even when they are in flight (watching a guinea chase down a yellow jacket is something to behold). Yet, for some reason they tend to leave the bees in the garden alone. Not to mention the added benefit of all of the neighbors telling us how the appreciate the distinct lack of flies in the area.

In fact Freckles was just expressing her thanks...or she was begging for garden leftovers (I am certain it was the former though).

The primary reason I bought these birds was to keep down the squash bugs, and let me tell you - these birds can eat squash bugs at a rate that is astounding. I noticed more than a few on my summer squash last year and decided to introduce the birds to their intended prey by catching one and throwing it under the plants. I could see the light bulb light up to 100w as soon as it looked under the first leaf. I went in to grab a beer and enjoy the show, only to find a few bird feathers and nary a squash bug. After that, I enjoyed a fine, squash bug free season! As far as I can tell, there are only 2 problems with guineas - they eat onions and tomatoes (or maybe I just got the stupid ones)! To prevent this, I have put fencing around all of my non-squash plants and will cover the tomato(e) plants as well. Other than that, they are fine birds who roost in the plum trees above my compost bins year round (even in the coldest weather they don't go in the barn), adding a steady supply of manure and feathers to the mix.

So, if you live in a rural (or not so rural) area and want to keep down the bugs (the natural way) with some self sufficient birds - guineas are perfect!

Mulching Onions...

So, I noticed a few days ago that the mulch around my onions had disappeared (worms can eat!) and I needed to mulch them up before the bulbs burned. So, this evening I snagged a couple of wheelbarrows of nice chipped leaf mulch and spent some time pulling out the few weeds that were taking advantage of my laziness and then laying down a nice helping of mulch. The only downside is the dill I overseeded was covered up as well. I am hopeful that the dill will make it and break through since the mulch was finely chipped and I didn't put down and paper, etc first.

I love the way leaf mulch looks around onions!

I also spent some time weeding (volunteer tomatoes) out around the corn and winter squash and loaded up the leaf mulch there as well. The leaf mulch this time of year is so nice and you can see the plants perk up with the rush of nutrients within a couple days of application. I definitely need to remember to cut back my travel schedule this November so I can dedicate my spare time to collecting more bags of leaves than I did this past winter. At first I was just worried that I wouldn't have enough to last me to September and it quite apparent that I won't even make it through June. To think, just a short 7 months ago, I was staring at a snow covered mountain of leaf bags and wondering how I would find the time to chip enough to get the garden covered before I had to start planting.

Mulching is my #1 weed control, and if done correctly in April-June no more weeding is needed in the garden for the rest of the summer. Through trial (and mostly error) I have a the discovered the master weed suppressing mulch (along with a sure way to keep the slugs, that inevitably start breeding like mad under that fine leaf mulch, away from the plants).

Mulch layers:
1) Coffee filters
2) Damp newspaper (don't hold back - I like to layer it out 8+ pages thick, but no ad pages!)
3) Coffee Grounds (spread over the newspaper)
4) Chipped leaves or grass clippings
Note: If you mulch the walkways early, the weeds will come through in June and you will have to hit it again. Which is a good thing, since the worms are just transporting the nutrients via castings into your beds for you (how nice of them!)

To keep the slugs down add a 2in ring of finely crushed egg shells and/or coffee grounds around the plants (especially young pepper plants) and overseed dill into every bed after you are done planting them. The slugs will hit the dill first and will be easy to pick off in the evenings as they will be perched on the top eating the new growth. I like to use rubber chemical gloves to pick them... mostly because squishing slugs between my fingers is one of my favorite stress relievers.

Moving day...

....and so, I was able to move my load of manure today, and it spread nicely over the newly added garden area. I had to wet it down then cover it with my standard newspaper, coffee grounds, and grass clippings. I will just need to keep on top of the mulch since the area was thoroughly weed covered. At least the back of my truck is empty and ready for my Thursday coffee pickup...the fine folks at the coffee shop should have a nice load of them ready for me since I have skipped out the past couple days.

Starting next month, I will be hitting up a couple more coffee shops down by the office...I keep running out every weekend and have come to the conclusion that I need three to four times more than what I am currently getting. I don't even have enough to add to the compost and am completely ignoring the flower beds, etc...

...the worms are starting to complain, so I better get on it before they rise up in all out rebellion.

Garden goodies: Lettuce and kohlrabi!

Kohlrabi!

...and so the kohlrabi bonanza begins! I was in the garden this morning, lamenting my lack of edible sized kohlrabi, when Heidi was kind enough to point out the large, obviously ready to eat specimen mocking me from the edge of the bed. Of course, I let it sit in the garden all day (the anticipation building) for us to enjoy as an after dinner snack. Pealed and sliced, it was as amazing as I had anticipated! Thankfully, I grew both the green and purple varieties this year and I am practically rubbing my hands together with glee at the thought of a summer full of my favorite veggie.

This afternoon, I also happened across and old rancher giving away 3 year old (rock and weed free) horse/cow manure. Unfortunately his tractor was out of commission, so I had to hand scoop 4++ yards into the back of my truck. Needless to say, my back is feeling the love right now. The only catch to having manure in the back of the truck is that I now have to transport it into the garden...on the bright side, I have a recently added garden area that hasn't been planted or mulched, and is perfect for a dose of manure with a thick covering of newspaper - topped with coffee grounds and grass clippings. That spot will likely be my summer squash patch next year, so I am well on my way to having the soil sexy enough to plant in.

Garden goodies: Lettuce, greens, and kohlrabi!!

More grass...and raspberries!

So, on my way home from work I stopped off at the coffee shop down the street from the office and skipped through a couple of neighborhoods on the Tuesday trash pickup route to get grass clippings. All told, five buckets of grounds and twenty-five bags of clippings! Who does this kind of stuff anyway...I haven't seen the white coats yet, but am assuming that they are right around the corner.

I was able to spread four bags after my evening walk so I feel like I am ahead and can take it easy spreading the other twenty-one tomorrow morning...

I also harvested the first raspberry from the transplanted runners that I saved from the walkways at my mom's place this spring. I am looking forward to next year's crop which will probably be enough to feed a small army, but for now am happy to have a few this year. Of course the ripe raspberries are a good indication that it is time to go harvest cherries at the self pick orchards, and hopefully we can get out and do that this weekend with my parents. We talked about it at dinner and it has been established that self pick is the way to go since the kids can eat enough to get sick while we are picking, and we will still have enough to can when we get home!

Garden goodies: Lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, and 3 raspberries (since Heidi refused to play along with my "close your eyes and open your mouth"game...so, she automatically lost and I was forced to eat the raspberries myself...maybe she'll get one tomorrow...maybe)

Rain and Weeds

So, I woke up to cold rain this morning - making it difficult not to just stay in bed with a book....but alas, I got up and went down to D&B and bought a new rain slick (Carhartt of course). It kept me nice and dry and allowed me the opportunity to start on my summer weed control. It has been getting to me the past few weeks that the weeds are starting to poke through the leaf mulch and take over. Since I am about out of leaf mulch and what I do have has been earmarked for mulching around the potatoes and onions this summer, I snagged 22 bags of grass clippings on my way home from my parent's house yesterday.

So begins the grass mulching season. I hate grass clippings for many reasons (the primary reason is that they are no where near as sexy as leaf mulch) and I vow to collect enough leaves this winter to mulch with the entire summer. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to hold on to the heavy duty bags from my leaf collection this past fall as they really come in handy as trash bags in the garden and I think I will make a box in the garden shed just for these bags next year.

Thankfully, I was just wrapping things up when the real rain came in and even with my new rain slick it was a bit much to for me to stay outside.

What we are eating from the garden: Lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens.

Care for the soil...

So, I spent the day mulching the garden and doing my early summer soil care. This process has several components:

1) Water the area for at least 2 hours the night before.
2) Cover the area in coffee filters.
3) Cover the filters with damp newspaper (at least 2-8 paper layers thick, depending on the type of plants in the area and their moisture requirements).
4) Spread coffee grounds over the newspaper as thick as you can.
5) Cover in chipped leaf mulch, with the leaves that may blow around left in the rows and not close to the plants.

Here is the end result:

Garden Fopah #1

DSCN0967

So, my first post will deal with a major mistake I made from last year. That mistake can be directly attributed to laziness on my part: I didn't clean all of the tomatoes off of my garden before tilling! This has been my only major problem thus far this year, and I have literally thousands of little tomato plants coming up all over the place.

How this happened: It froze early last year and all of my tomato plants kicked it a full 3 weeks sooner than they should have. Subsequently, I had a huge carpeting of tomatoes all over the garden after I ripped the plants out. I looked down at the mess and decided to till them in and mulch over the top of them. My theory was that I could mulch enough to keep them from getting through...wrong answer! I can apparently keep conventional weeds at bay, but the average tomato plant is what does me in. So, every time it rains or I water heavily, I have a new crop of little tomato plants coming up in all of my beds. I am none to happy with myself and vow to rake all tomatoes off and feed them to the goats this year.

In the meantime I better get back to pulling tomato plants (I am on my 4th 5 gallon bucket full...sigh). On the bright side - I forgot to plant tomatillos this year and it appears that I have a few of those coming up between the corn (so salsa verde looks like it is still on the menu for August...hu-ah!).