Well, I’m all for trying things new when it comes to gardening. You see, I really have no clue what I’m doing in this area, so I do a bunch of internet research, and ask people what they do, and why they do it. (If they usually respond, ‘I don’t know…it’s how I’ve always done it.’ my first response is wondering if it could be done better.)
Besides adding spinach to our vegetable list this year, the new thing for our garden is trying grass clippings on top of the soil, once the plants have come up.
Here’s our tomato plants that Knut covered a couple weeks ago. It’s supposed to help tone down the amount of bugs on your plants, as well as really help with weed control, and keeping moisture in. It also keeps the plants cleaner, which is nice when you like to eat it right in the garden like me. I have also been able to enter the garden and work in these areas after a rain without getting so dirty. It’s been working so great for the tomato and strawberry patch, that we’ve been thinking about extending the practice to the rest of the garden.
I once saw in a Martha Stewart Living magazine that she had dried straw/grass in between every row in her vegetable garden. It looked so neat, but I thought it was a bit excessive. Then I realized…
we have excess. I mean seriously, if you’re going to go to the trouble of having acreage to mow, you might as well put those grass clippings to work, you know?
So here was the row I got done today. I pulled all the weeds from the area first, and after raking a huge part of the lawn, and bringing the clippings over, I filled the whole space between the row of green beans and the row with beets, lettuce, and spinach. (Those 3 are all in one row.) It’s green now, but it will dry in the sun, and turn yellow like the other areas. When I went out to “weed” the tomato and strawberry section, it took me about 30 seconds. Only a few weeds were strong enough to push through the clippings, and I have very few to pull. I’m hoping that if I can get the whole garden done before these plants need to start being harvested, I can spend most of my time harvesting, and not as much weeding.
But as you can see, I have a bit of garden left to go. We’ve got 2 rows of peas, the asparagus, and then I’m not sure what I should do where the pumpkins and squash vines will grow. Something to think about. But if I can rake enough to fill one row a day, then I think it will be doable. (By the way, this is what my garden looks like after 4 days of no weeding. Ahhh!) Today I weeded and raked and spread grass for 2 hours during nap time (in the heat of the day…of course.) and got one row done. Tomorrow morning we should be home, though, and I hope I’ll be able to get a good chunk done when it’s not so hot.
Because the front flower bed could use some work too.
I planted around the tulips because I read that you should leave them there until all the green leaves the leaves, because as long as they are green, they are still feeding the bulbs for the next year. Ummm, they haven’t been green for over a week, and I think it’s time I take them out!
And we planted 2 hydrangea bushes in front of the house this year, and weeds have come around to welcome them. They are either pink or blue depending on the acidity of the soil. I found pink ones that looked very healthy, but I think we’re going to try to gradually turn them blue, as we think that will pop against the color of the house better. We had blue hydrageas in our wedding, so it will be fun to have them planted in our garden!
I had taken some pictures of our rose bushes which are just gorgeous this year, but they all turned out sideways for some reason. Trust me, they’re gorgeous!
And I called it quits for the day when Silje came down from her nap. We decided that we should have some drumsticks. I took a picture of her, and not me because really, a sweaty dirty mommy with grass clippings all up her arms and frizzy hair pulled back in a pony tail is really not something that should be posted;)
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