Grassy green garden

You can see the "poor mans hay" (really tall grass from the side yard over the septic field) that Kelli and I raked up and put on the garden in all the paths (how's that for sustainability?).  Well - most of the paths...  you can see all the peppers on the right living life "un-mulched".  You can also see all 32 of our tomato "Max custom" cages and plants going strong out there.  The intent here was to put these long clippings down so thick that the seeds they carry won't grow - and the weeds awaiting growth in the soil will be choked out.  That keeps our weeding activities down.  The free bonus in this equation is the organic material it adds to the soil when plowed under this fall.

This is just a section of the planted areas - off to the right (not in the picture) is the corn, garlic, onions and "vine guys" (melons, squash, gourds, etc.).  All the vine products are planted in the middle of black plastic mulch this year - not the "best" for the environment - but it's an experiment since last year it became more "weed" than melon.  I'll be filling in between the mulched rows with lots of my rained on baled straw.

Finally - I'll be mulching directly under the asparagus with all the litter from the chicken brooder when they move out to pasture...  lots of nitrogen for the deep feeding asparagus...  next spring - full harvest!

Comments

[Jeph]

Cool! You guys are gonna have a ton of veggies this year! Check out Joe Lamp'l's/Joe Gardener latest video blog to see how he turns freshly mown grass into dry, straw-like, non-clumping mulch - cool trick, altho a bit of work. ...and I don't expect you guys bag all your clippings out there!

[Andy]

No - we don't bag... just rake the side yard when we cut the tall grass and put it in the garden.