Discussion forum for environmentally-friendly alternatives to replace synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.
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October 13, 2019 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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I am trying something different this year for mulching the garlic. Every year, finding mulch is a big project that sends me far afield. Sometimes I don't get enough! Some years I had lots of kelp but that hasn't been the case for several years now, although I have a little. So instead I looked around the perennial garden for something that I could use without filling my beds with seeds.
I found a couple of candidates. Agrimony is very leafy, and the seeds are on tall spires that rise above the plant. So it's easy to clip off the seeds, then use the rest as mulch. One type of goldenrod (a weed at the back of the garden) is quite leafy and also has limited seeding/flowering parts at the top which can be clipped off, then clip the plants for mulching. I also am eyeing the geranium, which is certainly leafy and doesn't produce a lot of seeds. I'm trying out the agrimony. If it works, I could plant rows to use as mulch for new garlic beds. No more driving around after mulch (okay maybe some kelp treats will still be worth it! ) |
October 14, 2019 | #17 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Vancouver Island Canada BC
Posts: 1,253
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One time visiting youtube I came upon a title that made me go hmmm. 'Chop and Drop'. Sounds like me, I thought. And yes, it was someone in Georgia, I think, who does just as the title says. When I prune things in my shrubby hedges I then cut or chip trimmings with mower and leave it under the plants as mulch. I never ever add any fertilizer and find that what is under the mulch is crumbly worm castings. No weeds either.
Another Sunday morning I heard a horticultural teacher, master gardener, from UBC say that bare soil is dead soil giving me even more incentive to carry on. He said to leave some dead plants for bird nesting material and that why would we assume that mother nature doesn't know what she is doing when plants drop leaves and branches around themselves. That's what I thought, too, after watching it go on for years. Well The birds and insects are happy in the hedges. Neighours who are just beginning their garden adventures at their new place remarked at how much cooler my yard is compared to theirs down the street in the heat of summer and I know that it is warmer on cold days with the harsh winds kept out. I've always used what is handy to mulch with but I have started to use pine tree beetle killed pine chips for the tomato growing area and even on top of tomato pots last summer. Worked well. |
October 15, 2019 | #18 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Comments this evening.
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October 15, 2019 | #19 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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@Coastal, too true! The soil under years of leaves at my bro's place is incredible.
The problem I have here is the dominance of spruce and var. Few deciduous trees, anything like those couple of birches in the pic gets blown far and wide, you can't find leaves to rake. I'm starting to have a few leaves in my driveway now, but it wouldn't mulch the area of my garlic beds. And the moose keep browsing down my little deciduous trees and shrubs, leaving nothing to chop and drop. So I have to look to the smaller vegetation, which has managed to be successful here and unmowed by moose and hares. |
October 15, 2019 | #20 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Queensland, Australia
Posts: 25
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Quote:
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October 15, 2019 | #21 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Queensland, Australia
Posts: 25
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Amend your soil with charcoal. It's the ultimate carbon capture and it also improves the soil..... look up 'terra preta'.
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October 15, 2019 | #22 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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Quote:
Flaming the bottom of your spruce fence posts is a good idea here, to make them last even longer (the spruce is very durable anyway.) I may do that. |
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October 15, 2019 | #23 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Quote:
As for the later I sad earlier. The sticks that fall to the ground in my yard I burn. They have dropped due to stem girdling beetles. These sticks have eggs in them. Many others just get chopped up and left where they may be from the mower. Leaves are the same thing. Some get swept up and pushed into a pile for a bed I have at end end of the driveway. |
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November 16, 2019 | #24 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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So here's a pic of my roadside allium chaff/tomato plant compost/hugel. There are branches at the bottom and an old log across the back. Garlic tops and trimmings went in earlier with a bag of commercial compost over it. It was not really enough to cover and there's no soil handy here to use. Then finally all the shallot chaff, final garlic trims went in and covered with some weeds and dirt, a bag of the household scraps and my ten chopped down tomato plants and their roots. It still needs more dirt but that will have to wait for opportunity.
I've come to an acceptance that wild animals are a part of action in my forest garden system. Animals are going to eat my compost scraps and turn them into manure. So be it. I would rather that that the animals be squirrels and bunnies and even shrews, little mice or voles. I thought about fencing the compost to keep out rats. I have one like it and am still watching for signs, will I have to change my habits for the winter to discourage the pest. Meanwhile I spotted this brand new mousehole just next to the hugel beginnings. You can't keep nature out of the woods. As long as they don't come in my house, I accept that they play their role in making me some earth carbon. |
November 16, 2019 | #25 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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Those frolicking moose brothers also left manure all over the place after feasting on the herbs and shrubbery. Worst thing about moose they always do it in the path. They will walk through your garden beds leaving them gouged with hoofprints, but never let anything fall unless it is in the road. Unlike hares and even grouse will tend to give it back right where they took it from, convenient to the soil building project. Anyway I must pick up after moose if I don't want to walk in it, so I went around with a bucket and loaded it all into my end of summer compost where it won't go to waste.
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November 16, 2019 | #26 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 3,194
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Our whitetail deer are inconsiderate like your moose. Birds, on the other hand, are lovely. Perched on the top of the deer fence, or on the tomato cages, they put it right where I want it.
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November 16, 2019 | #27 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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Yes, the birds love a rail to perch on! I built a rail over my Mom's tomato bed to tie them on, and they would sit there and foliar feed em. I'm sure that's how she got such big tomatoes.
They like my 'moose rails' too. Robins are pretty thrilled about the garlic beds. They spend hours patrolling the rows and it's just wide enough for them to be comfortable on pest patrol down there. A little bit of well weeded ground is important for them, and they sure are worth it. But they like to work in pairs, so a rail for the lookout is icing on the cake... did I say icing? |
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