Garden Planning

[RiverRock]

Originally Posted by charla

Hmm, my chives don't spread and I've had them there for several years now and it just comes back each year as a small plant. I wonder why mine don't spread.

Mine tend to stay in a big clump. When I prep the garden for planting in the spring I pull out the occasional seedling, but I know that's because I let the flowers go to seed.

[charla]

Oh I see, maybe I'm pulling the seedlings thinking they are weeds.

[Soliloquy]

Do they flower? I'm pretty sure mine are spreading by seed.

---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:43 PM ----------

Oops, I see you already got your answer.

My chives aren't in my fenced garden because deer won't eat them. I have them in a spot where they can spread as much as they want.

[HuggaBuggaMommy]

We can finally plant this week. This year I pulled up my raised beds. I liked the at the beginning, but they got to the point where it took up more space to have them than not, because of how they were placed originally, and because we only have about a 20X20 area that actually gets enough sun in our yard. So we're tilling on Thursday and I'll be planting after that. Dd is so excited to get started, but is disappointed that we missed the window for snap peas.

[2sunshines]

I offered to pay my 8 yo for pulling all the weeds and grass from my raised bed. He is saving up funds for something he wants to purchase so this is perfect time to get lots of great well motivated labour.

[charla]

Send him on over.

[ViolaMum]

I want to burn all our weeds from last year; I've read about people clearing their garden space every year with a blowtorch. I think it would be good for the soil and a whole lot less annoying and more efficient than pulling. I think my dh is a little afraid I'm going to go all Ghostbusters on him with a blowtorch and start a forest fire, though.

[RiverRock]

I've heard of people blowtorching dandelions to keep their yards looking nice. Little spot zaps to kill them. I never thought of doing an entire garden bed but it doesn't sound like a bad idea to me at all. Well, a bad idea for my garden beds because I have wooden boxes...but for open spaces it sounds good.

[charla]

How satisfying that would be to burn all of the weeds. Knowing me, I would probably have the whole yard on fire, plus my house, plus the neighborhood.

[RiverRock]

I think my yard is beyond torching the occasional weed, and I would end up with an occasional patch of grass.

[Soliloquy]

I love weeding, as long as it's not turf or tansy. I want to blow torch all our tansy!! Great idea!

I'm not using my entire garden this year. It's big and I have a 1-year-old, nuff said. The parts I'm not using I covered with black garbage bags weighed down with rocks. That will kill all weeds. When it gets hot, the weed seeds will bake under the black plastic and become sterile. (You can use the method to expand your garden, too. Do this the year before and the next year all the weeds and turf will be dead, no weed seeds either.)

If you can get free newspapers, you can use several layers of newspaper and cut an X where you have a plant. For seedlings you have to wait until they're bigger, though, and it's not as effective because the weeds have a head start. You can Google lasagna gardening.

[ViolaMum]

We use the grass clippings as mulch. It keeps most of the weeds at bay.

[Lady Grey]

I wonder if a blow torch would work for the oak tree saplings that try to grow in one of our flower beds.

[Soliloquy]

Today I dug up a bunch of strawberry plants that popped up outside their raised bed. I moved them to my flower beds. They make a good ground cover and the few that I moved a few years ago have produced, too. Hoping to move more tomorrow.

I don't know if I want to keep our blackberries or kill them off. They spread everywhere and their thorns are viscous! I need full body armor to deal with them.

[tempestjewel]

Rhubarb makes a yummy sauce- we eat it on Dutch baby/oven pancakes. My grandpa served it with steak, but I haven't tried that yet. Our rhubarb patch is out of control. It was with the house when we moved in. We dug up some and the roots went down 3-4 feet!

We should be able to start harvesting asparagus next year.

A hail storm stripped the blossoms off my Apple trees, so I am not sure we'll get any. They are still pretty young trees so no huge harvest yet. We moved in almost there years ago and that first winter we planted two Apple trees and a plum. Last year we planted a grafted pear tree with four types of European pears, as well as asparagus crowns and huckleberries. This year I bought two fig trees, two elderberry bushes, four blueberry bushes, and added seven more huckleberry plants to a shady spot.

For veggies I have three raised beds and use, "Organic Gardening West of the Cascades," by Steve Solomon as my bible. I make my own fertilizer and tweaked it this year. I've harvested all the radishes, some lettuce and some kale. The snow peas are flowering, so we should have some soon! The baby Pac choi is ready to harvest, too. I have brocolli, cabbage, and carrots growing. I gambled a bit with my heat lovers and did transplants a bit early, though under protection (using red plastic around the tomatoes and peppers, and green plastic mulch over the soil where the peppers and cucumbers are. The cucumbers are under hot kaps still.

We brought our herb garden with us, so rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, and chives are always available. My lavender plants have really spread out, too!

I'm still a newbie at this, but I am enjoying it!