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[Beekissed]

What a blessing!!!! Think he'll have more? Maybe you could put the word out to ALL your neighbors that you are a willing "dumping" place for yard cleanings/clippings. Just think of the compost piles you'd have cooking all over the place, especially if they bring you lawn clippings next spring/summer.

 

[henless]

Bee I wanted to thank you for posting about your BTE garden on BYC. I have never heard of this method until your post. I've been watching the videos and trying to learn as much as I can about it.

Today I watched a video on how to plant/harvest potatoes using the BTE method. It was just wonderful! I never knew you could plant your potatoes in the fall and harvest them the next year.

I think I learn something new about BTE every time I watch a video.

Thank you!!

 

[Beekissed]

YW! And I know exactly what you mean by learning something every time you watch it...me too! Same thing happens each time I read the Bible...every single time I find things I "missed" last time.

I too was amazed at planting potatoes in the fall, so I did it this year and will get to report on that in the spring and also at harvest. I'll be tickled pink if that actually works for me here, as I love the ergonomics of it all....plant while you harvest. How cool is that?

I think some folks kinda watch it, if you know what I mean....skim it maybe or not watch it all the way through. From some of the comments on BYC and other forums, I fear many will start it in the spring and be very disappointed when the chips lock up the nitrogen in their soil. I started mine in the spring, simply because I didn't hear about it until this time last year, and knew that would happen but was still taken aback by it all.

 

[henless]

I got a late start on mine for the same reason. I don't think I'll have the nitrogen problem since I'm using leaves instead of chips, but my ground won't be as workable as it would if it had sat all winter. Then too, our winters aren't as long/cold as a lot of people so that will play into it also.

I don't think I'll be able to plant the potatoes in the garden this year, so I'm going to put some in buckets and see how that goes. This fall, I'll pick a spot for my potatoes in the garden and plant them then.

I'm very interested to see how your garden does this year. I know you have wood chips down, but you also put a lot of leaves on your garden area. I'm curious to see how you like it better with the leaves compared to the chips.

I'm making a small garden this year. If it does ok, I have plans to expand it some and put up a fence. This will enable me to really pile on the leaves and not have to worry about them getting blown off the garden. So far, I haven't had many leaves blow away, but I'm not sure I have them deep enough.

 

[Beekissed]

I think the results that Paul G. gets as far as the water retention and absorption will not apply when using all leaves. I'm not sure, but the way he describes the wood chips they act like a sponge but I doubt the leaves will have that much ability to do the same as they lack the density of the wood particles. I think they will retain moisture pretty well but might not actually wick up excess moisture like he describes with the chips. I also don't know if the leaves will be as effective at keeping the soil from compacting with foot and vehicle traffic like the chips will. Only time will tell.

I know the leaves will mulch down more quickly and so will need replenishing more often and I don't know if they rob nitrogen as much as the chips would, though I doubt it...it's all guess work from here on out. I intend to continue to use chips as I can get them and supplement with the leaves when I cannot, as I don't have much choice in the matter.

What I hate to do is see a vid on how to do something, then change it so much that the results they are getting are not even close to the results I can expect to get. I see folks doing that on YT and then getting on there and bad mouthing the method because it "didn't work for me" and must be a regional thing. I'd like to stay as true to the method as possible, if the Lord wills it that I should have access to wood chips as I need them.

Henless, please let me know how it goes with all leaves as you go along? I may eventually have nothing but leaves at my disposal when all my wood chips finally mulch down and I'd like to see that road ahead if someone else has already traveled it. I've seen a few YT vids on folks using leaves but mostly really small gardens in already fertile soils, not necessarily to change the nature of their soil but just as weed suppression and additional organic matter. I need to affect a HUGE change in the soil here, so weed suppression is nice but it's not my whole problem.

I'll tell you what I'm seeing in my worm bin and that's how quickly the worms are consuming those leaves and breaking them down into tiny particles and dragging them into the soil below. It's astonishing! I'm hoping between the native worms and these new guys I'll be putting in the garden come spring I'll see some really quick composting of those leaves.

I saw a vid on a guy having the same effect on his own leaf mulch~said the worms are consuming it so quickly that he couldn't keep the leaves on his garden as weed suppression without constantly adding more due to the worms diminishing it~ and that's what led him to try the wood chips instead...he doesn't have a follow up vid, but I'm hoping the wood chips slowed down his rate of composting. I want mine to speed up, so I'm quite okay with the worms working their magic.

 

[baymule]

@henless when do you plant your potatoes? In southeast Texas, I planted in mid February, but we moved here in mid February last year, and it snowed 3 times and we had an ice storm. I am thinking maybe first of March.

Pile the leaves in your coop, as many as you can get. I used to pile them in 3 feet deep. I picked up bags of leaves all over town and had a big stockpile of them. I just kept adding more to the coop and run. I would dig it out after a few months and had dark crumbly garden gold. I raised 20 ducks to butcher once and used 42 bags of leaves in a not so big pen. I raised corn in the pen after the ducks were gone to freezer camp.

A few years ago, I made a huge pile of leaves and mixed in horse manure. I planted potatoes in the pile and got the biggest, prettiest new potatoes I ever raised. I also made a chicken wire bin and planted potatoes in it. In both beds, after I harvested the new potatoes, I planted sweet potato slips and got a good crop of sweet potatoes.

My new garden spot is now permanently fenced and is the home of 3 pigs. We covered the garden with 6-8 inches of pine shavings from a horse event center before we put the pigs in there. The pigs have dug up briar bulbs and roots. They are rooting it up, after they go to slaughter, I'll smooth it out, remulch and plant. This year HAS to be better than last years dismal failure.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, how did you corn do in those leaves? I'm curious as to how my sweet corn will do this coming year, especially with the addition of the leaves.

42 bags?????? That's a lot of leaves in one pen! How long were they there before you planted into them?

How long were your leaves in place before you planted those taters? My taters are right now lying under a mounded up pile of grass clippings, chopped leaves, manure, wood chips, and leaves. Lots of leaves. I'm hoping to get a big yield off of the number planted.

That's what I'm hoping to do in this whole garden with this new method...more actual production in less space than I was using before. Our garden used to be almost half again larger than my current plot and we used to plant 150-200 maters to get a crop big enough to can a lot, but now I want to plant less, harvest more. Hence the changing of the nature of our soil, going no till so I can pack more into that space in the absence of having to maintain rows, etc.

 

[henless]

@Beekissed ~ Could you post a link to the guy with the leaf mulch? I'd like to see it.

I'm still looking for wood chips. No luck so far. There is a program near here will people can get composted mulch chips for free, but I don't live in that town.

We haven't had any rain for a few days. I looked under my leaves yesterday, and the cow compost that I placed on top of the cardboard is wet. The leaves right on top are also wet. The leaves on the very top of my garden are dry. So there is some moisture retention going on.

I'll keep you and everyone updated on how my garden goes. I really need to start a thread on my garden, just haven't gotten around to it. This is really something new for me. We had a garden a few years ago and it was really good. We planted it next to our barn in the old horse corrals. Lots of old manure in that area! My chicken runs are in part of the corral area now. The last couple of years, I've only had a small raised bed. I put a few things it it and really enjoyed it.

@baymule~ This is my first year to plant potatoes. We planted them when I was young and we always had them in by Feb 14. For next year, I plan on planting them this fall and let them over winter in the garden.

Yesterday I planted some in 5 gallon buckets. I want to see how that goes. I put 1 in full dirt to about 2 in from the top and filled the rest up with leaves/pine straw. Two buckets I put about 3 in of dirt/compost in the bottom, and covered the potato with dirt and filled the rest of the bucket up with leaves/pine straw. The last 2 buckets I put dirt/compost in the bottom and covered the potato with the same. I will fill these 2 up with dirt as the potato grows. I want to see which one works best. I used a whole potato in each bucket instead of cutting it up.

I still have some more to plant, just have to find a place to put them. I really don't want them in the garden this year since it is still "cooking" so to speak, lol.

I had thought about using my granddaughters sand box to put the rest of the potatoes in. I'd cover them in some cow manure and leaves. I don't know how well they would do on sand? Any thoughts? Also, how deep where your leaves when you planted you potatoes in them?

@Beekissed ~ 200 taters! Wow! Your a gardening Queen!! Do you have a root cellar or do you can most of your produce?

I pile leaves in my coops and runs already. In fact, I need to put some more in the coops soon. I really love this way instead of weekly cleaning. There is just NO smell! People that come over can get over the no chicken poo smell! Not to mention it's so much easier.

My garden isn't very big right now. This is really an experiment to see how well I can work it. I think the hardest part is getting it all together. As soon as DH gets the mower fixed, it would be so much easier raking up the leaves.

I'm going today to get my fruit trees for my new orchard. Hoping to plant them tomorrow, then I'll be getting more leaves to cover them up. At least it's going to be nice this weekend. Highs in the low 70's and lows in the mid 50's. My kind of weather, not hot, but not cold. I don't do good in either, lol.

 

[Smart Red]

@Beekissed ~
I had thought about using my granddaughters sand box to put the rest of the potatoes in. I'd cover them in some cow manure and leaves. I don't know how well they would do on sand? Any thoughts? Also, how deep where your leaves when you planted you potatoes in them?

Here in Wisconsin, commercial potatoes are grown further North and it's all sand. I don't know what is used to fertilize them, but they are grown on the same lands year after year.

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed ~ 200 taters! Wow! Your a gardening Queen!! Do you have a root cellar or do you can most of your produce?

That was maters....back when we planted our usual taters we planted WAY more than 200 taters. It's not hard to plant 200 taties, as they grow closer together and don't need to be staked. That was back when we had more eaters in the family. Now I just plant 3-4 short rows of taters...probably no more than 50 ft. of taters.

Here's that worm vid:

And another, time lapse vid that's really, really cool to watch!