Lotsa Leaves

Lotsa Leaves

I’m ahead of the game! At least for the moment.  All my open beds are weeded and shaped up, and I’ve put them to bed for the winter with the thickest leaf covering they have ever enjoyed.  I reap huge benefits by covering the garden with leaves. The soil remains softer as the leaves act as an insulator and protector from winter weather.  Weed growth is almost non-existent, no sunshine – no weeds. In the spring, many of the beds will be ready to...
Raining in the Garden

Raining in the Garden

The year has brought us a lot more rain than we really need. The good news is that I’ve barely had to water.  More good news is that water-loving plants like tomatoes, melons, and zucchini are putting out huge crops. Bad news is the tomatoes are splitting from too much water, and leaf blight, always a problem in Wisconsin is rampant again. More bad news is that the weeds love the rain every bit as much as the veggies. Even more bad news is that the mosquitos...

Prepping Open Raised Beds for Winter

We’re taking advantage of good weather to get a lot of garden beds prepared for winter.  We’re loosening them up with a broadfork, pulling out most of the weeds, shaping them up neatly, and covering them with a thick layer of leaves. I don’t use cover crops to protect the beds through the winter.  Cover crops are a good approach, as garden soil should not be left uncovered and bare, but I have an abundance of leaves, and covering the garden with them is a lot...

Open Raised Bed Garden

I advocate the use of open raised beds for home gardening.  I’ve been working with open beds for over 30 years.  There are lots of advantages over both conventional planting in rows, and also over assembled, boxed in beds.  I’ve got two plots with open beds.  The area I call the south beds is a very geometric layout of 18 beds, each about 5 feet wide by 20 feet long. The north bed area is a lot more haphazard.  It borders on a weedy, woody area “where the wild...

Garlic Planting in Open Raised Beds

Our target for planting garlic is the end of October. We hit it this year and I’m always happier when the cloves are set for their winter sprouting. Yesterday, I planted 76 saved seeds and added 38 new seeds, Lorz Italian, a softneck variety we purchased last week from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, our neighbors across the aisle at the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka. I had a bed nearly ready to go. Potatoes had been harvested from it, earlier.  It was...

Pin It on Pinterest