Mulching the New Herb Garden and Looking Around - June 1, 2019 @goldenoakfarm
Yesterday I tackled the mulching. The round bale had gotten a bit moldy but had not turned to black slime as we feared. Some of it had fermented, as it is supposed to.
So, working alone, I pulled pieces off and filled my big sled and pulled them over to where I was working. Using round bales is sometimes easier than square bales, at least in this application. It’s often hard to pull square leaves apart for small places. They are great in the vegetable garden between the rows. But you can pull small or long pieces off the round bale.
I got Row 1 done and started on Row 2 and made it halfway. If I’d had my helper, I could have worked much longer. The bending up and down and getting up and down make the standing problems from the Lyme disease much worse and cuts my working time in half or more. I lasted 3 hours, which is very good time for me. With help I could have done 6 hours.
These are things I saw as I wandered the yard when I finished.
7th Fence garden – 2 types of iris blooming
West Maple fully leafed out
West Maple stump’s garden, not moved yet….
The yard and front pasture, looking west
From left: white oak, east maple, catalpa
The catalpa just leafing out, buds for flowers will follow soon
West garden – coral bells
Old North garden’s azalea
East Maple
Bulkhead garden – violets, pink lamium, yellow lamium, white iris
East garden – bottom to top: hyssop, giant allium, bleeding hearts, lungwort, violets, white iris
So many of these beds will be moved or the trees gone soon. Just a couple weeks left….
Apparently I'm not the only one who's limited by physical conditions. It frustrates me big time that I can only do half' or even only a quarter of the work that needs to be done in a day ☹
But you read my mind. This afternoon' when I was fighting with the straw I'm using to mulch this year' I made a mental note to start asking around about what others were using to mulch.
Looking at the pics' I assume you're using hay?
These last couple of years, I've been using hemp fiber. It is so easy to apply, but after a while it becomes such a compact and hard layer I'm not even sure that rain gets through.
So this year, I thought I'd save some money and use straw. But straw is impossible to work with. I did the best I could, but because it doesn't bend, it's not easy to cover everything but the small plants. I already know it was a bad idea, so now I'm trying to find the best alternative to use next year.
Doesn't hay have a lot of seeds in it?
I never use straw as I find it dangerous, hard to work with, and it doesn't do the job well. It's dangerous because when it gets wet, it is VERY slippery.
I have used hay exclusively since 1992. Put down correctly and with timely renewal, there is very little problem with weeds. But if you don't get it down in time, watch out! Here's my post about using hay mulch:
https://steemit.com/gardening/@goldenoakfarm/about-using-hay-for-mulch
Last year was a bad hay year here and there was little mulch to be found. So I didn't mulch in the fall. I now have a big source of organic mulch hay and have a mess to clean up before I can mulch. That's why the New Herb is taking so long to do.
Once I finish it, I get to start in the Big veg garden which is even worse. This was mid May...
Thanks a ton. Very useful post about mulching with hay. Tomorrow, I'm going to get myself some. I'm so frustrated by the straw. I work in raised beds and containers. It's really hard to fit it in properly, and the blades of grass are just growing through it.
But it's not really the weeds I have problem with. I mainly want to limit the times I need to water the plants. And I've already noticed, straw isn't doing the trick.
I should actually train the plants to go without water for a longer period of time. But it's like 40°Celsius in the greenhouse, and since nothing is planted directly in the ground they have no access to groundwater...
If you stress plants by withholding water, their production and health declines. They must have water to take up nutrients from the soil...
Just make sure you put it down thick enough. Most people do not, and that's where the trouble starts.
I know people who 'train' their plants so in the end they only need to be watered like 3 times a month. I spoil my plants too much when it comes to watering them 😂
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