Dead plants for my future garden | Vegetables

Home
Community
Forums
Vegetables
Dead plants for my future garden

Post New Topic Reply to Topic

Dead plants for my future garden

Most Active Topic:

Change a letter game. (16195 posts)
Word Association 2 (12501 posts)
Either/Or Game (4614 posts)

Most Recent Topic:

Member	Message
Kittyfang Joined: 8/23/2007 Location: Posts: 74	Posted: Sep/18/2007 9:37 PM PST Ok, so I picked up a shovel and loosen up some dirt where my garden will be next year. There were some weeds in that patch, so I've dug em up, cut them up with big blows of the shovel, and mixed them in with the soil. I will probably be adding a bag or two of commercial soil or commercial compost, but I'm not sure if I should do this before or after winter. Also, should I, once in a while, mix in dead plants in the soil (before this winter)? edit I saw on Lowes website a 50lb bag of Cow manure for 4$. I guess I can mix that in the soil, yes? (but still, can I do this now, before winter? even tho I will be planting my garden next summer.) Quote \| Reply \| Report

spiceoflife Joined: 7/30/2007 Location: Suburb of Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 698	Posted: Sep/19/2007 10:01 PM PST Hi Kitty, Yes, you can do that in the fall. That will be great, especially for the weeds you turned under. By spring they'll have broken down and the soil will be ready and waiting. Some people might note a concern about the type of weeds you are turning under as some weeds are notorious for surviving and regrowing from very small pieces of root, rhizome or stem. Personally I don't recall running into anything so pernicious. Regardless, I usually throw everything into the compost pile and add the compost to the soil instead. If you've exposed the dirt already, I recommend either mulching the area (straw, hay, etc.) or planting something, anything to cover the ground, rather than leaving the ground bare for the next several months. Buckwheat, winter rye... heck, scatter radish and lettuce seeds over the ground. This will accomplish several things. 1) it will look better than bare ground, but, more importantly 2) it will help keep weeds down. 3) it will keep much of the nutrients from washing away 4) and assuming you plant something edible, provide sprouts and a cut and come again batch of greens for another month or so Regards, RR Quote \| Reply \| Report

mbvirtue Joined: 3/01/2006 Location: McFarland (Madison), Wisconsin Posts: 4582	Posted: Sep/21/2007 12:23 PM PST Also keep in mind bare ground will get dried out over the winter (even if there's a layer of snow), so that "blanket" of mulch will keep it from getting "freezer burn"... Quote \| Reply \| Report

Read Next Discussion

You must be a registered member to participate in the forums. Login or register below.