Inspired by Skippy's Garden, I'm starting this list of things to try (or avoid) next year, and I'll add to this post as the year goes on. Maybe this way I'll actually look at my list in time to implement it :)
This all comes to mind because I've just been caught up with that peculiar mix of anxiety and eagerness that accompanies so many of my garden plans - the desire for perfection! the desire to try it now! - by stumbling across this flyer on:
Cover Crops from the nearby Dowling Community Gardens. I have been mulching with cocoa bean hulls, because they look lovely and I like the smell, but they tend to compact and both mold and split. The larger problem for me is actually the splitting - they cake up and then split into chunks, leaving ample room for weeds to get through. And putting on a thick enough layer adds up in $$. So for that, and because I am dangeroudly lazy about adding soil ammendments etc., this fall I want to plant a mix of cover crops to use as mulch and to enrich the soil.
Raised Beds - this may or may not take place, and may start sooner than next year. I'm picking up a load of nice old bricks from the ReUse Center later today that could be used in this service. I haven't wanted to raise the beds because I like the idea that I, or a future owner, could move them. But I have no desire to move them or to move, and in the meantime the beds are a bit of a mess and that adds to the difficulty of keeping the paths free of weeds. (Ha!) So I'm looking for the right material, that keeps the organic appearance of the garden, and is easier to move about than the big logs used by the previous owners, which I removed just last spring.
Green beans - try higher trellaces. I've been tying my own pyramids out of bamboo, but the plants want to go higher. Oh yeah, and plant fewer beans.
Okra - plant more, closer together
Comments