Back to Eden Gardening

As I spread hay and tuck it beneath plants, I'm simply amazed at how lush and healthy most of my plants are compared to last year. I've been thanking God for that all morning...I've had so many years now of failed gardens, battles with extreme pestilence, etc. that this year's garden, though not perfect, is still a balm to my gardening soul.

I picked beans on Fri. evening and pretty much cleaned out the vines, but today I notice they are heavy laden once again, which causes me to rejoice! If I can keep them picked off and canned up, they should produce well until first heavy frost. I'm really loving them growing amidst the tomatoes...that seems to have diverted the attention of the bean beetles and JBs to other places.

I'm also finding many cukes I've missed and have gotten almost too big or some that have already gone to seed, which is great...we got zero cukes last year. All squash plants are the healthiest I've had in many a long year, no squash borers in site and not a single squash beetle on any of the four yellow squash plants...compared to hundreds last year and not a single yellow squash harvested last year. We've got squash coming out our ears this year!

I just went ahead and covered the onions up with hay, they were that pitiful. Will clean them out of the raised bed also, along with the turnips that were not thinned and so didn't make anything but tops. The carrots, even though planted in the raised bed with a soft soil medium in which to grow, are stunted and deformed, so no sense in planting anymore. They won't grow in this soil and they won't grow in a raised bed, so I give up on that. I'll clean out that bed and sow it all to greens come Aug. and place a tunnel over it.

Might also do that to the spud bed, as it will not have produced a single spud....may just clean out those vines this month and sew the whole thing to greens and tunnel it.

That will give the peppers planted around those beds some good sun so they can finish well this fall. Everything is so deeply green and healthy looking it's hard to believe it's the same garden I've been struggling with these past 6 yrs or so, but especially in the past 4 yrs since adding chips. I didn't even have to side dress anything with chicken compost this year as the hay didn't seem to leach any nitrogen away from the plants. All I fed everything was epsom salts and a little sulfur dust and that was just the once. I'm very pleased and thankful to God over the garden this year!

a good year is always welcome.

diversity in plantings has been a good idea. like you have experienced, some seasons various crops don't work out, but others do and can provide a bounty that's hard to keep up with.

flowerbug said:

a good year is always welcome.

diversity in plantings has been a good idea. like you have experienced, some seasons various crops don't work out, but others do and can provide a bounty that's hard to keep up with.

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also note that the wood chips you put down in years past may finally be getting to the point where they are providing some of their nutrients back. with the added hay on top (which provides more N along with the C and everything else) you may have turned the corner on the hardest part of changing methods of gardening.

flowerbug said:

also note that the wood chips you put down in years past may finally be getting to the point where they are providing some of their nutrients back. with the added hay on top (which provides more N along with the C and everything else) you may have turned the corner on the hardest part of changing methods of gardening.

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No doubt. This clay eats top soil and amendments like a glutton, so the need for continual compost on this garden is necessary for there to be any loose, aerated soil handy. Those chips are still in evidence here and there, but for the most part they have mulched down into soil...but it's still only a thin layer, even after applying chips for 3 yrs. About 3 in. deep before I start hitting the heavy clay again, but at least that clay is loosened up a little due to worm passage.

Beekissed said:

No doubt. This clay eats top soil and amendments like a glutton, so the need for continual compost on this garden is necessary for there to be any loose, aerated soil handy. Those chips are still in evidence here and there, but for the most part they have mulched down into soil...but it's still only a thin layer, even after applying chips for 3 yrs. About 3 in. deep before I start hitting the heavy clay again, but at least that clay is loosened up a little due to worm passage.

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that's about what i've found here too. in one garden i doubled that rate of soil improvement by turning it to mixed legume cover and chopping it back several times a growing season (and leaving most of what is chopped behind for the worms to feed on). it's prime garden soil now, even if heavy clay. i wish i had two of me available to put it into production for next year. Mom's mowing it this year because i can't get to it quick enough to suit her tastes. if i'm smart i'll get it planted this fall with winter wheat or winter rye so i can turn it in the spring.

Beekissed said:

I drove past many, many gardens this weekend as I drove across the state that would have made you wet your pants with glee. And these were gardens that are normally kept neat is a pin...guess those folks are having trouble keeping the weeds down when it rains too much to run the tiller through the rows.

That's one reason I went to no till...this heavy clay soil seals up tighter than a frogs butt after a rain and then drying, so pulling weeds from it normally is an Olympic event, which is why most folks just run a tiller through the rows to till those weeds under.

I can pull a well established weed or clump of grass so easy now it's laughable...and the soil coming up on the roots is rich and black, not grey/yellow/red clay colored. I share your excitement when pulling a weed now as it's just so satisfying to do and there are so few to pull.

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Welcome to the club!

Mary

ninnymary said:

Me too! Years ago I found one. I thought it was kind of pretty being so big and fat, haha. But nothing ever since. But then I also go hunting for weeds and seldom find one. When I do I get soooo excited! haha

Mary

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you can come visit any time...

p.s. Mom says, "We'll ship her a pail."

Beekissed said:

I drove past many, many gardens this weekend as I drove across the state that would have made you wet your pants with glee. And these were gardens that are normally kept neat is a pin...guess those folks are having trouble keeping the weeds down when it rains too much to run the tiller through the rows.

That's one reason I went to no till...this heavy clay soil seals up tighter than a frogs butt after a rain and then drying, so pulling weeds from it normally is an Olympic event, which is why most folks just run a tiller through the rows to till those weeds under.

I can pull a well established weed or clump of grass so easy now it's laughable...and the soil coming up on the roots is rich and black, not grey/yellow/red clay colored. I share your excitement when pulling a weed now as it's just so satisfying to do and there are so few to pull.

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ok, i'm wondering, who else is thinking, "how does she know how tight a frog's butt is?"

but, yeah, weeding hard clay is one reason why the scuffle hoe works for me. just skim and slice them off and get on with things. what takes more time are the weeds under plants that have to be cut off more carefully, if they get too big i just cut them and don't even remove the roots because i don't want to disturb the veggie roots.

if i have enough mulch (i never do) it's vastly superior to use and get weeds out of... it seems i could use about five dump trucks a year.

i'm also quite happy to stockpile materials by burying it until i need it - i just have to remember then where i've stashed it.

Got it done with 12 bales left over and about 25 still under the carport, so I'm set for this year, I think. Since the bales in the garden got wet, they are MUCH heavier than when dry....didn't do my back any favors there. I tried using our dolly but that just didn't work out, so had to walk each forkful of hay to wherever it needed to be in the garden. Took me longer than I expected doing it that way.

The garden before the hay was reapplied....covering very thin and hay growing up in places where it was thinnest.


This is where I threw the hay over the fence...a big ol' jumbled pile of hay bales. That's what happens when you plant veggies in front of your drive in gates, like some kind of idiot.


Now....pics of the garden after I applied about an 8-10 in. layer of hay throughout and stacked the left over bales that weighed a full metric ton each due to being wet.

Bee, I sometimes use a wheelbarrow to move a bale of straw around. Easier than carrying them. Or sometimes when they are wet and heavy, I break the bale apart and use a wheelbarrow to take leaves of straw to where I'm spreading it instead of the whole thing. My back's still pretty good but it ain't what it once was.