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My garden space is 16x40. On my plan for this year, I have divided it into strips of garden bed about 4 ½ feet wide, with a 2' walkway in between each bed, the idea of course being that I can weed and harvest from each bed without walking on it. I wanted to put some kind of compostable...

I've not labeled well in the past but am determined to do better this year. I started by creating a plan using PlanGarden. I'm still tweaking it but once I'm done and started planting outdoors, I'm not going to change it. My hope is that I will be able to consult the plan to tell what is...

Yeah, I think that's where I'm at - leave it in the lawn but don't plant it in the veggie garden. FWIW, where I grew up, if it was green, it was a lawn - it wasn't until I moved to the US that I learned that a "lawn" is supposed to be only grass. I can't give up my roots though, and still, if...

Wow - thank you for relaying your experience of the DWC. I actually had it in my shopping cart (online) but hadn't checked out yet, and I don't think I will. So glad I came on here to do more research.

Hmmmm….I don't know. I use wheat straw and have never even seen rice straw -maybe it doesn't break up into the smaller particles as easily. Also it sounds like it compacts more with contact with the poop - I think a previous poster mentioned rice straw is used to make bricks. The wheat straw...

I can only wish I'd never seen one….

What a great question. I cannot answer it yet as in the past my gardening has been a bit hit and miss. I've planted multiple varieties but didn't do a good job of labeling so by harvest time I did not even know exactly what I was eating. This year I have multiple varieties of many different...

Oh gosh, it would be so hard to tell the difference as there are so many factors. One would be how many chickens you have on it, I think. When I put a bale in, the straw is still in very long pieces but the chickens scratching through breaks it up. I don't ever try to turn mine, myself - I...

That's the problem. Something like that works on a small area but the bigger you go, the more you have to look at other options. Around here it is windy more than it is not, so covering garden beds with paper doesn't work unless they are really well staked down. I've used paper feed sacks in...

I've never planted a cover crop before so have been researching them quite a bit recently but now I'm confused again (happens easily) :/ My understanding of a cover crop was that you plant it in an empty garden bed after the crop has been harvested, let it grow and till it in after only a few...

Good to know. I have a couple of old round bales out in my pasture that are at least 3-4 years old so I will use them first. Our hay from last summer is what DH was most concerned about using.

Mulching is laying a layer of compostable material over a garden bed. Its primary purpose is to retain moisture. When you water (or when it rains), gravity helps the water run through the mulch to the garden bed below, but once there, the mulch acts to stop it from evaporating back out of the...

Thanks everyone. You pretty much confirmed the way I was leaning which was to remove the cardboard. Cat - yes! I've been adding organic material ever since the first tilling. Last year I covered the entire plot with the bedding from the DLM (deep litter method) of my chicken coop. Several...

Smart Red, oh no, I was asking the question of the OP who was looking for somewhere online to order them. I totally get if you already have them, its worth reusing them - but it didn't sound the OP already had any and was looking to purchase and in that case I was surprised.

Ok, here goes. I just made a pot and photographed each step of the way. First lay out the supplies - newspaper, masking tape and whatever is being used as a template. I prefer a tomato paste can but in this case, the simplest thing to put my hand on was a spice bottle. Now I cut the sheet...

I'm wondering why you want the plastic pots? :hide I usually just make the little newspaper pots. Even though I don't take a newspaper, we get a freebie delivered once a week and that supplies more than enough newspaper. I like that I can just plant them straight into the ground so I don't...

How did you like it? I looked at the link and graphically it looks quite similar to the PlanGarden software I am using. I notice it was free for 30 days and then you would have to purchase a subscription? I did wind up subscribing to PlanGarden for 3 years (because it was $20 for one year but...

What a great thread - I've just read it through from start to finish so now don't remember who said what…. Last year I started with nothing. We moved to this property mid-summer the year before and the previous people did not have a garden at all. One day last February I got a call from a...

Welcome Rick! I'm new/old here myself.

Thanks for the kind welcome! Steve - I agree about the plan and hope it will help me stay on track. From past experience I know it is easy to get overwhelmed when everything seems to need to be done at once (plus most all of us have other responsibilities besides the garden and sometimes the...