What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Prairie Rose]

Do you consider to use cardboard to block light that is necessary for them to grow? Basically I am trying Charles Dowding's no dig method (cardboard+compost mulch), and he mentioned bindweed in this video.

I have been trying the cardboard + compost/mulch method for years, and it's not making a difference. I keep trying, but it's bad.

 

[flowerbug]

I have been trying the cardboard + compost/mulch method for years, and it's not making a difference. I keep trying, but it's bad.

it really takes a long time to exhaust the seed bank for those. like their relatives the morning glories those seeds can be viable for years so if you are regularly disturbing the soil in the area where they've been growing and dropping seeds for years you have to keep smothering and not disturbing the soil or you have to be very persistent and consistent in removing all of vines before they can drop more seeds. it's a really pain in the butt thing to have to do but if you're going to be gardening in that space you have to either keep it very bare so you can get all the vines or keep it covered and then you'd only have to get after the vagrant few vines that come up where ever you do disturb the soil enough to get those seeds into the germination zone.

i don't think we've grown morning glories on the fence along a pathway for the past seven years but there are still seeds in the pathway and along that fence that still keep sprouting each year. it is getting less and less as time goes on but they're very persistent seeds. we have another garden that it was even longer the last time we had morning glories growing in there and that garden is still sprouting them at times. probably over 10yrs ago now.

 

[flowerbug]

Do you consider to use cardboard to block light that is necessary for them to grow? Basically I am trying Charles Dowding's no dig method (cardboard+compost mulch), and he mentioned bindweed in this video.

yes, that is how i deal with a lot of problem areas that get too full of weeds, a few layers of overlapping cardboard and then top with mulch. if you use coarse/large wood chips then at the end of the season when the cardboard starts to get enough weeds coming back through it you can pull back the mulch and repeat putting down a few more layers over whatever is there already and then replace the mulch. it is much faster than having to hand weed the area (especially in heavy soils like what we have here).

him being able to stick a trowel in the ground as easily as he did (in the unmulched area) after a dry spell is almost impossible here. it is very tough on the hands and wrists. even to dig with a shovel can be a challenge during a dry spell. in some of the clay i can jump up into the air and come down on the shovel and it will only go in a few inches at the most. when it has been raining enough it is much much easier... smothering and mulching, much much easier than digging for sure. even if i've had to repeat the effort it's still much less in total time and effort than anything else in comparison other than using herbicides which i don't like to do at all if i can avoid it.

 

[digitS']

"Seeds of field bindweed are nondormant when produced and able to germinate immediately after pollination before their coats harden." UC, Riverside pdf

"With their tough coat, the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 50 years." WSU

And, then there are the rhizomes. This weed has you coming, going and everywhere in between!

Mulching several paths with wood chips years ago had the opposite effect that I'd hoped for. The bindweed in the 2' wide paths was not killed. Instead, it migrated a foot or so and came out from under the mulch in the garden bed! I once laid plastic film under 2 boxed beds and refilled the soil within the frame. Ornamentals were grown in that garden and I sprayed the paths with herbicide. I rid that small area of the rhizomes, at least ...

I try my best not to walk past bindweed without at least an attempt to pull it out - especially, the easy-to-pull, rhizome-less seedlings. I have no excuse to leave them. I was noticing how little there was in the big veggie garden this year. I have something of an advantage there. The 80+ year old tractor guy always tills the garden in the same direction. Since lately I only use the area where he starts, rhizomes from the LARGER piece of ground that he also tills don't show up that often but that ground has plenty of bindweed! Unfortunately, UC, Riverside says that studies show that the seed passing through a bird is still viable ...

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

watering, weeding and otherwise puttering around. some bean picking to eat freshly steamed beans. the tomatoes are blushing i guess @ducks4you 's stories carried on the wind. picked some of the onions that had their tops knocked over.

should get out and get some pictures today, it's been a while since i took any.

 

[digitS']

Harvesting.

This showing up out in the big veggie garden about every 5 days isn't the best. Never.the.less, I can't come up with a better schedule than wait until the air is okay and make the run before it's too hot! Left before 7, back by 10. And, shucks ... there were lots of cucumbers that had gone around the bend. A couple more mega-size zucchini but what was really startling was that the melons had ripened!

No Petite Gris de Rennes but that's good! We will take some of these (in an air-conditioned car) to DD, soon. Not all are fully ripe but 4 or 5 had split!

Honey Blonde Honeydew is near the camera, then the trusted Diplomat or the NEW Visa Galia and the Goddess Cantaloupe is more to the back. There are some more of these 3 but not a whole heck of a lot. I hardly know how to behave with so many coming on at once. (The split ones were pretty much okay and were cleaned and peeled and put in a big bowl in the fridge.

As I say - I'm happy that the Gris de Rennes hasn't ripened. Hopefully, we can save it for September!

Steve

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I planted half the fall garden and got them mulched. I took out most of the old tomatoes in favor of the new ones, usually they just linger producing little. I potted basil and pineapple sage and chives. I want to have a herb garden inside this year. I planted 2 lilacs and put mulched hardwood bark on some of the roses, camellias and the rising sun redbud. I hope it is pretty next spring. Its been hard to find a good spot, being so hot here. I moved it 3 times but it is settling in now I think.

 

[digitS']

 

[Phaedra]

How many of you will make a to-do list? I do almost everyday for the next day before leaving my working table.
So gradually it became a habit and now I do a colorful daily log -- yeah, i am a paper person, like writing and drawing very much.

 

[ducks4you]

Check out:

Ducks4you 2021 Ragtag Thread

There is probably one or two here: https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/garden-humor-thread.13835/page-679#post-385992 "Dirty" means something different to a plant, ya know.

www.theeasygarden.com

#192
Cut down burdock and removed. There are still a few piles left, but the easiest way to remove them is for DH to tote them out in the bucket of the tractor and dump on my north pasture burn pile.
To do that aGAIN, we have to reconnect the bucket, and that takes some dedicated time, alTHOUGH he keeps getting better and better at it.
So...the piles will have to wait.
Got some new help and he prepped my barn's loft by sweeping up, sweeping/feeding loose hay, moving it by sweeping off of the loft into my big wheelbarrow and carting off for the horses to eat, which they Did.
Then, moving about 65 leftover 2020 bales to the loft where I feed first.
He also did same to the 5 leftover straw bales.
It was GREAT to not have to do this myself, and focus on the garden, instead.
I get my new hay next Sunday.
I am Blessed to able to store 400 bales hay, and 50 bales straw.