New Garden Plot - Long Term Soil Building Project

FourOaks · May 27, 2018

Observation time!

Earlier today we cleaned up the raised beds. These are located between the GH's. We cleaned out the 3 that had the Sugar Snap Peas. One of the 3 was filled with nothing but Leaf Mulch last year. The other 2 beds are a combo of Compost and what ever else I could find at the time.

The bed with the Leaf Mulch is what really caught my attention. Although I didnt notice early this year when we planted the peas, maybe cause it was less then optimal weather. The top inch or so, looks like standard ground up leaves. But down below that, it looks closer to soil. The leaves have certainly broken down since last year. Looking at it, you would never guess that it was at one time a product that was dangling from a tree. Also, this bed was quite moist. The other bed that was nearly straight compost, fairly dry. Last night it poured the rain, which is a nice change. Been a few weeks since we had any appreciable rain fall.

This indicates 3 things to me...

1. Using free Leaf Mulch to fill raised beds was a winner. It may take a year or 2 to really break down, but thats ok.

2. Using the same Leaf Mulch for my Plant Sale Containers next year will be ok as well, as long as I dont wait to long to start stocking up.

3. Adding the Leaf Mulch to the new garden plot and blending it into the plant holes should eventually yield excellent results.

Just to add, in the raised beds we cleaned out, 2 of the 3 were sown with more KY Wonder beans. Now I am up to 96 feet worth of KY's. These will hopefully kick in right about the time for the Roma IIs in the tunnel give out.

May 27, 2018	#35
FourOaks Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: NC Posts: 511	Observation time! Earlier today we cleaned up the raised beds. These are located between the GH's. We cleaned out the 3 that had the Sugar Snap Peas. One of the 3 was filled with nothing but Leaf Mulch last year. The other 2 beds are a combo of Compost and what ever else I could find at the time. The bed with the Leaf Mulch is what really caught my attention. Although I didnt notice early this year when we planted the peas, maybe cause it was less then optimal weather. The top inch or so, looks like standard ground up leaves. But down below that, it looks closer to soil. The leaves have certainly broken down since last year. Looking at it, you would never guess that it was at one time a product that was dangling from a tree. Also, this bed was quite moist. The other bed that was nearly straight compost, fairly dry. Last night it poured the rain, which is a nice change. Been a few weeks since we had any appreciable rain fall. This indicates 3 things to me... 1. Using free Leaf Mulch to fill raised beds was a winner. It may take a year or 2 to really break down, but thats ok. 2. Using the same Leaf Mulch for my Plant Sale Containers next year will be ok as well, as long as I dont wait to long to start stocking up. 3. Adding the Leaf Mulch to the new garden plot and blending it into the plant holes should eventually yield excellent results. Just to add, in the raised beds we cleaned out, 2 of the 3 were sown with more KY Wonder beans. Now I am up to 96 feet worth of KY's. These will hopefully kick in right about the time for the Roma IIs in the tunnel give out.