Comments on: Our Garden

By: lavendercreek

lavendercreek — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Yes! Bindweed, that is exactly what it is, you’re right. Very tenacious stuff! Before we began clearing the land a few years ago, we had an absolute impenetrable sea of 5ft tall nettles. Come June the bindweed would completely engulf the nettles! So what I am doing then is all that can be done from what you mentioned in your post…good to know that it might eventually go away someday! Thanks Patrick!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:50:54 +0000

The vine you probably have is called bindweed. It’s a really horrible weed! I have it this year for the first time too. The roots are too deep to dig them out.

What I understand you must do is just break it off at or as far below the soil line as possible, and just keep doing that as it comes back. After a year or two of doing this they are supposed to mostly die off.

By: lavendercreek

lavendercreek — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:07:40 +0000

Hi there Kate, thank you for expanding on the mulch theme. I need to look into this. I think we would not have had so many weeds to deal with this spring if we would have put the garden to bed properly last fall, we were just too discouraged at that point.
Our biggest problem around here is nettles, morning glory vines and some other vine I’m not sure of the name of. The nettles are slowly coming under control after repeated cutting. The vines are what we are dealing with currently. They sprout and grow a full 6 ” overnight, I swear! And they wrap themselves around everything. I am pulling them out every evening now.

Next year we’ll be adding chickens which I intend to keep in chicken tractors, I think those will be a big help with the weeds also.

By: lavendercreek

lavendercreek — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:57:39 +0000

Hi Patrick, yes we are on heavy clay…really heavy :p
Thank you for all the tips, especially the tip about the collars for my pumpkins and cucumbers, those are just what I need! The coke bottle cloches did a great job but the plants are getting too big for them now and I was wondering what to do next.

No we aren’t using any mulch. I thought that mulch would give the slugs and other pests another place to hide and thrive? So far I am keeping on top of the weeds. I do about 30 minutes of hoeing and pulling weeds every day, so far so good. I will do a bit more research into this, also into the lazy bed potatoes, I’ve not hear of these.

By: lavendercreek

lavendercreek — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:46:50 +0000

Hi Hilary, wow, the garden must look bigger than it actually is, but thank you for the nice compliment! It’s really not very large, I’ll be happy if we get enough out of it this year for my husband and I to get a taste of everything we planted! Last year we certainly didn’t manage that!

The bug thing is hard, but in the end I would surrender my entire garden to them rather than put down anything poisonous. I just know that if we are patient and encourage a balance, that eventually we can achieve one. I had to look up hornworms so now I know what to watch out for. I’m not sure if we have those here, I’ve never seen one. I admit, they do look fascinating…and hungry!

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:53:26 +0000

That is meant to say….. NO digging even…..sorry – I should have read it before.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:51:16 +0000

I usually put a thick layer of newspaper under the straw, if the weeds are tough and persistant. I just trample them down – digging even, cover with newspaper, overlapping so there are no gaps, water well, cover with straw and , if I want to plant into it straight away, I cut into the newspaper with a sharp knife – just big enough to pop the seedling in. It works a treat! Chooks, though are the best and easiest solution, as I wrote about on my blog recently, and you get eggs too.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:34:43 +0000

Your cucumbers and pumpkins might be getting eaten by cutworms. You might be able to protect them with a collar, like a cardboard TP roll or perhaps a piece of thin cardboard or aluminium foil taped around the stem at the base of the plant. You should search the Internet or look elsewhere for more information, because I don’t really have any direct experience with this. While I don’t have problems with cut worms, I understand they are very frustrating!

Do you guys use any mulch? Especially when starting a new garden, I find it invaluable to be able to toss a pile of straw or wood chips on bare spots to prevent weeds from growing. In this way garlic is a very good crop to start with on weedy ground. While you should remove as many weeds as possible first, you can cover it with 15cm or so of straw or hay after planting, which will kill most weeds but not bother the garlic. There is also lazy bed potatoes for weedy or grassy land. Both garlic with mulch or lazy bed potatoes leave the land clear of weeds for the next crop.

What kind of ground do you guys have, heavy clay?

By: Hilary

Hilary — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:40:24 +0000

I appreciate the adherence to not putting anything down that would harm anything but the pest. I am trying to stay with that notion as well. However, last year when the tomato hornworms found and destroyed my tomato plants (when I was on vacation for a week) I wanted to use the most destructive, carcinogenic, pathogen I could find. The feeling passed and the hornworms were fascinating (my kids kept them and fed them my destroyed tomato plants- I was at peace at that point) and quite beautiful too. Your garden looks amazing. I don’t think it is small at all- I think you will be able to feed that entire village! Thanks for the great post!