ideas for preparing beds for next season

[bjbebs]

My gardens are improved with horse manure and leaves in the fall.
When any large blocks of plants come out, such as garlic in July, I
will cover crop with buckwheat and then grain rye. I can double up
on the cover crops and still have time for leaves in November.
I hear a lot of talk about tillage ruining soil structure or damaging
earthworms. Organic matter has been tilled into my gardens twice
a year for decades. I can assure you that what few earthworms are
hurt will replenish quickly.
Nothing against store bought fertilizer but natural products do work
over time. Brown-green and manure in any combination or quantity
is all soil really needs.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Originally Posted by Tania

I add lots of coffee grinds to all empty beds in the fall. Then I plant oats and mustard (Sept) or winter rye (Oct-Nov). This keeps the worms very happy, and my garden soil fluffy and rich.

If we had leaves, I'd add them too - but we are surrounded by cedar and hemlocks and have very few alders around.

Semi-composted cardboard on the garden paths gets raked into the beds too.

Tatiana

Coffee grounds from a local coffee shop. I add about 1500 pounds of coffee grounds (with filters) every fall to 5 large beds. Worms love the filters.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Coffee grounds from a local coffee shop. I add about 1500 pounds of coffee grounds (with filters) every fall to 5 large beds. Worms love the filters.

Scott / Tania, are you adding the coffee grinds straight to the soil or are you composting them first. I pick up 200-300lbs a year and add them to compost projects but I have never added them directly to my soil. There is a guy where I work who always brings in some nice veggies to share with folks. A few years ago I asked him what he uses to get such nice produce. He said "nothing really, I just use coffee grinds." I had to laugh at such beautiful simplicity!

Glenn

[Tania]

Glenn, we always add coffee grinds (with filters and some 'bonus' banana peels LOL) straight to the beds. Mostly in spring before planting, but also in the fall after harvesting. We stopped adding it in summer time simply because all the beds are mulched heavily with wood chips and it is not convenient to move mulch to add coffee. So in summer I am adding coffee grinds to the wood chips in hopes to make great compost.

Tatiana

[ScottinAtlanta]

Glenn, I add it in the fall (November-December) so that by March when I plant out, it is fully composted. Like Tania, I don't keep adding it over the growing season - too much trouble to dig it in.

[Tania]

I leave the coffee grinds on top of the soil, as our garden is no till.

The spring (March/April) application disappears completely (along with filters!) by mid July or even earlier - when I care to check it under the mulch layer. Lots of worms, they love coffee.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by Tania

Glenn, we always add coffee grinds (with filters and some 'bonus' banana peels LOL) straight to the beds. Mostly in spring before planting, but also in the fall after harvesting. We stopped adding it in summer time simply because all the beds are mulched heavily with wood chips and it is not convenient to move mulch to add coffee. So in summer I am adding coffee grinds to the wood chips in hopes to make great compost.

Tatiana

Interesting that you mention making compost and mulching with the wood chips. I was inspired by a thread here and watching the video Back to Eden to make some permanent beds made by heavily mulching with tree trimming wood chips. As an organic gardener I was looking for a good source of free high nitrogen organic matter to put under the layer of wood chips. Seems like the coffee grinds might just be the perfect match.

Glenn

[Tania]

Glenn,

I think it is a very worthy thing to try - I am certainly trying it this summer, as we finally got enough wood chips to do these experiments!

So far the coffee/wood chips piles look very promising. They heat up almost instantly (the next day), and stay hot for a long time. They smell great too

I have a wood chips pile that is kept moist, but does not have coffee grinds in it, and it stays cool. So it is not breaking down on its own. Needs nitrogen!

Coffee grinds and wood chips are free resources that we could utilize more.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by COMPOSTER

Scott / Tania, are you adding the coffee grinds straight to the soil or are you composting them first?

Glenn

I compost mine generally. I have used them directly in the soil before, but generally not. Even when I did use them directly in the soil, I gave them a full month to decompose before planting.