What Did You Do In The Garden?

[YourRabbitGirl]

I got the rabbit fencing put up but is still a gap or two at the gate I need to take care of. Dug a bed for potatoes yesterday, and hope to plant them today. Got onion plants in the ground earlier in the week. It seems the ground in the garden is slowly disappearing. With the strong winds on this ridge, it may all be blowing away. I guess I am going to have to have some dirt hauled in. Compost and straw eventually blows away.
DH has been clearing undergrowth and trimming trees. The lawn and trees look great.

I bought 3 dwarf figurines, I added it in the center of the mini fountain. they said its good luck, I even added 7 mushroom figurines too.

 

[ducks4you]

Not much, but tomorrow I should have a better report. As you know I am fixing the broken cattle fencing to the south where my neighbor, who Used to keep a pristine yard, but now has a permanent large dumpster, and a non running van, and glass windows out where the world can see them...every day. He got his last DUI high of mj and coke and, now a widow I think he is losing his mind. When he took a big tree down a few years back the tree partially crushed some of the fencing. Some of it was down and some was missing. I have cleaned up the old and rusty barbed wire on the top and DH and I pulled up the crushed fencing a week ago with the tractor. Yesterday I stretched it out and away from the metal fence posts and I have it tied to a 20 inch diameter established pine tree. Tomorrow I want to get it attached to the fence posts and attach the rest of the new fencing and finish the fence. Got peas and sweet peas to plant on my side of it and I hope that I can get a passion flower growing to stick to the fence and obscure the worst part of my view.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I finally got the next bed cleared of convovulus...as much as one can for a first time round. Just under half of the bed is planted out with leeks and sown down with spring onions, carrots, red bunching onions and a row of florence fennel.

Half of the bed had been heavily mulched with woodchip overtop of bits of tree trunks that werent any good for firewood. I learnt that too much of a good thing is a bad idea.
I found that after two years, the woodchip along with the tree chunks were still intact and had not been broken down like i thought they would be, so, I now have bags of this stored out of the weather to scatter around in a more timely (for want of a better word) manner.

Today, I started clearing the area for the next path that runs alongside this bed, but I'm out of bags to store the chip in, so its going to have to get plopped ontop of the half bed thats not planted/sown just to get it out of the way for the path.

And That was a full days work. I'm knackered.

 

[flowerbug]

I finally got the next bed cleared of convovulus...as much as one can for a first time round. Just under half of the bed is planted out with leeks and sown down with spring onions, carrots, red bunching onions and a row of florence fennel.

Half of the bed had been heavily mulched with woodchip overtop of bits of tree trunks that werent any good for firewood. I learnt that too much of a good thing is a bad idea.
I found that after two years, the woodchip along with the tree chunks were still intact and had not been broken down like i thought they would be, so, I now have bags of this stored out of the weather to scatter around in a more timely (for want of a better word) manner.

Today, I started clearing the area for the next path that runs alongside this bed, but I'm out of bags to store the chip in, so its going to have to get plopped ontop of the half bed thats not planted/sown just to get it out of the way for the path.

And That was a full days work. I'm knackered.

i use chunks of wood for mulching on top and around edges, but also if i need elevation i'll bury it down deep enough that it doesn't interfere much with the roots of the garden plants. eventually the worms, fungi, etc. break it down or i dig it up again and it gets broken apart. ants seem to like using it too if it near the surface enough. like the carpenter ants here which like to break any wood down they can find that is hospitable...

 

[Ridgerunner]

The type of wood they came from makes a big difference in how fast those chips break down. I don't know what trees you have down there but here persimmon and sassafras wood chips don't last long. Some types of oak can last a long time. Redwood, cedar, or fir can last a really long time, especially if they are from heartwood and not sapwood.

Then there is moisture. If it stays dry the bugs that break it down can't live and reproduce. But if it stays moist they can decay it a lot faster. And there is nitrogen. For an optimum speed you need the right mix of carbon and nitrogen. The wood is really high carbon. You can speed up decomposition by adding something rich in nitrogen, like chicken manure. I've been known to toss in a handful of a high nitrogen fertilizer to kick-start the process.

I'm not sure of your purpose for those wood chips and chunks. I like them as a walkway in certain places, They eventually break down and I just mix the compost into the garden. I also use them as mulch, typically in a landscaping bed the first year with the year-old stuff being mulch in the vegetable garden the second year but that mulch contains a lot of compost. By the third year they are pretty much gone, even oak and cedar.

Any wood will be slow to break down compared to the other stuff you typically toss in a compost pile, but if you want to turn it into compost add a nitrogen source, keep it damp, and season it with a lot of patience.

 

[Trish Stretton]

The type of wood they came from makes a big difference in how fast those chips break down. I don't know what trees you have down there but here persimmon and sassafras wood chips don't last long. Some types of oak can last a long time. Redwood, cedar, or fir can last a really long time, especially if they are from heartwood and not sapwood.

Then there is moisture. If it stays dry the bugs that break it down can't live and reproduce. But if it stays moist they can decay it a lot faster. And there is nitrogen. For an optimum speed you need the right mix of carbon and nitrogen. The wood is really high carbon. You can speed up decomposition by adding something rich in nitrogen, like chicken manure. I've been known to toss in a handful of a high nitrogen fertilizer to kick-start the process.

I'm not sure of your purpose for those wood chips and chunks. I like them as a walkway in certain places, They eventually break down and I just mix the compost into the garden. I also use them as mulch, typically in a landscaping bed the first year with the year-old stuff being mulch in the vegetable garden the second year but that mulch contains a lot of compost. By the third year they are pretty much gone, even oak and cedar.

Any wood will be slow to break down compared to the other stuff you typically toss in a compost pile, but if you want to turn it into compost add a nitrogen source, keep it damp, and season it with a lot of patience.

I used to use the wood chip on the paths but found they broke down amazingly fast making me need to scoop it onto the beds and then start weeding the paths again.

I had put a glasshouse slap-dab in the middle of the vegie garden and decided to try a hugelculture thing with the woodchip over the tree chunks to build the level of the beds up with a layer of soil on top.
.....not something you should do when you then go on to work 7 days a week for months at a time, lol. That is now stacked up neatly out of the way til I finish the beds and paths and am ready to clear the next area where it will then get rebuilt in a more logical spot.

The chip has been there for at least 2 years. What I did find that pleased me, was that I could see the mycelium running throughout the chip and tree chunks. So there is a chance that this has produced mushrooms but I never got to see them due 1. not being there and 2. all the weeds growing over everything.

I had access to truck loads of chip, never knew exactly what it was going to be. I used to make huge compost piles but it didnt seem to make any difference to the texture of the soil...then I learnt I needed to add alot more carbon.....and went a bit overboard.

I did forget about the need to add nitrogen and am glad you reminded me- I need to get chickens again

 

[flowerbug]

...
I had access to truck loads of chip, never knew exactly what it was going to be. I used to make huge compost piles but it didnt seem to make any difference to the texture of the soil...then I learnt I needed to add alot more carbon.....and went a bit overboard.

I did forget about the need to add nitrogen and am glad you reminded me- I need to get chickens again

interesting to read this as i was just reading another article on-line about some studies they are doing with using wood chips to remove some nitrate pollution from water that is being used to recharge ground water. and yes, they do help with reducing it as you'd expect...

my more general experience with nutrients and gardening is that i don't need all that much here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Maybe on topic, maybe not. Have you looked at the analysis of compost, the bags they sell at the big box places. The P-P-K. What I typically see is 0.5 - 0.5 - 0.3 That is not real rich in nutrients though it helps. To me the big benefit to compost is how it textures the soil.

 

[flowerbug]

Maybe on topic, maybe not. Have you looked at the analysis of compost, the bags they sell at the big box places. The P-P-K. What I typically see is 0.5 - 0.5 - 0.3 That is not real rich in nutrients though it helps. To me the big benefit to compost is how it textures the soil.

in all of my years here i brought in bags of composted cow manure one time only. ( and those bags went into three gardens). everything else since then has been either leaves, or wood products of various kinds (bark, sawdust from making wood, rotting wood, wood chips).

what i recall from the bags was .5-.5-.5

my actual main fertilizer is from either green manure crops which fix nitrogen, rainfall or the worms and worm compost and for that last i only use that in a few gardens each year because i don't have that much but also i've found out i don't need that much. i rotate crop plant through the areas i put it so that for the next few crops/years things seem to do well enough that i don't see any need to add more.

there are a few gardens that are notoriously poor soil that i am finally improving the past few years and will also be adding to this spring. i'll also be mixing a bit more of the subsoil clay into them too, not a bunch, but at least enough to hold the nutrients and moisture. there's a lot more sand in them than in the rest of my gardens and i can sure tell the difference. i'll be doing some dirt trading between the gardens.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Maybe on topic, maybe not. Have you looked at the analysis of compost, the bags they sell at the big box places. The P-P-K. What I typically see is 0.5 - 0.5 - 0.3 That is not real rich in nutrients though it helps. To me the big benefit to compost is how it textures the soil.

Its most definitely on topic.
I stopped looking at things like 'proper ratios' a few years ago and did try to just recycle my own organic 'waste', trying to apply the law of return.
While I do buy the odd bag of compost and more often, potting mix. Its usually mixed with my own soil to get the seeds/seedlings started in Spring.

My soil is supposed to be volcanic silt, to me, its sandy, too free draining and sucks up organic matter like it never happened. Its been an on going experiment to try and get a good mix.
One of my telling points, is weather or not the slugs and snails decimate my seedlings. I decided that if they do, then I didnt get it right.

I know its sounds rather odd, but I no longer hate slugs and snails for eating my seedlings and plants. I now see them as a needed and useful part of the eco system that is there to remove plants that are somehow deficient and have no value genetically speaking.
This year,for example, with my Cannelini beans, i saw them remove what even I could see was struggling seedlings, but leaving those right next to the eaten ones. I did have to sit and think about this before deciding what i was going to do about it.
I decided to do nothing. I have native lizards in my back yard now and know that they just love them.

What I am trying to do, is get my little ecosystem in balance with itself and understand that it will take time.....and that I need to watch and learn, rather than just react.
I have problem plants-privet for one, that I just cut up and use as mulch, before it sets seed.
I do try to cut it up so it lays flat, then try to cover is all with things like lawn clippings- this year thats been mainly from mowing my mums lawns or from my neighbour who is only too happy to get rid of 'that stuff'. My lawns re so small now, that I just dont have enough green waste anymore.