23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
You put newspaper or cardboard down several sheets thick on top of the grass/weeds to smother and prevent it from growing so you won't have to dig it out. Then you fill the raised beds. If you removed the grass/weeds before filling the beds then there was really no reason to use the newspaper underneath the soil. And you're right, the newspaper is only temporary. It will be composted fairly quickly leaving nothing behind.
As Ken said, using newspaper/cardboard on top of the soil and covering it with mulch is often used to prevent weeds and is much more effective during the growing season.
Adding raw organic matter in the form of coffee grounds and egg shells and whatnot to new beds is a good idea but don't expect them to provide your plants with many nutrients in the first year. It usually takes at least a year before new beds mature and the organic matter can become useful to plants. So I'd plan on fertilizing with an organic fertilizer (or a fert of your choice) next year. Even if it's not necessary, and it most likely will be especially with heavy feeders like tomatoes and corn, it's good to be prepared.
Rodney
Have you ever read that book on the $64 tomato? (:
I put down 2" x 6" x 10' planks to make the frame. I placed a grid of wire mesh (old aluminum gutter guards, screen, etc) and stapled it to the frame then turned it over directly onto the lawn. The wire mesh prevents any burrowing critter from attacking the plants from below.
Of course, this will prevent any roto-killing but then I never do it as it destroys the soil structure on which plants depend.
I filled it with a mix of compost and soil with total disregard to amounts. I used only soil and fiber from my own yard. Be aware, all soil had weeds and they can take 2, - 4 years to germinate so you will never be rid of them.
That winter, I took my collection of saved double page sections of newspaper, stapled them 4 sheets at a time end to end and rolled them up. (no glossy paper.)
In the spring, roll it out and cover it with 3" - 4" cooked hay. Cooking kills the seeds. It totally stopped all weeds for the entire year except where they could find a hole. The next spring, I rolled out another 4 ply of newspaper and added more hay. After the second year, the first layer is gone so don't worry about build up over the years.
After three years, I finally had the soil tested. There were no recommendations for adjustments or amendments.
Does any of that help?
I'm confused about what you are asking, but I can tell you this:
I live in Tennessee, and like maplegarden172...I plant spinach this time of year and harvest in the early spring (i do like to cover with lots of leaves to help insulate the plants).
If you have a large garden and not planting a fall garden then a cover crop is good. Oats and buckweat are a great cover crop. Their roots go less deep than rye grass. They will produce a healthy layer and keep the weeds out. Both will die at first frost and cover the area. When spring arrives, you can till it under and they both decompose quickly creating healthy nutrients for your spring soil.
I'd like to see more people interested in mushrooms, which are a very beneficial life form in the garden. The proteins in mycelium and fruiting bodies break down in to soil nitrogen. Accept that very few species are edible, and appreciate them for their forms and colors, like flowers. If I want to ID one, the first thing I do is take a spore print. Depending on species, the spore print can be white, pink green, black, etc.
I also think they are a parasol mushroom of some type, genus Lepiota. Some are edible, some are unpleasant, and some are poisonous. So no, don't eat them. The forum here that has people who know mushrooms is the ferns and moss forum, I seem to recall. Cheers!
I grow Gypsy hybrid and Orange blaze. From 25 plants I am getting about 120-150 liters of peppers a season. Only pick green ones very early in the season (just few) when I can't wait for fresh pepper in my salad and at the end of the season when it's getting cold. Every year I pant another variety of classic red bell pepper hopping that this one will be early and prolific. Every fall I promise myself not to waist garden space is red bell and just plant what I know works the best, but in spring, can't resist to try something new. No luck so far)
To mdfarmer about wireworms...
They are larva of click beetles and grow several years in the soil before they actually become a beetle and produce eggs. So manual removal helps a lot. I dig my bed 3 times a year - spring, after harvest and right before hard frost, or even after it before the next one. Every time I pick what I see. They hard to smash, so I just rip them in half - that kills them. The fact they grow several years before become to be able to reproduce means that if you didn't find one this year - you will find it next year. Just remove each one you see. Also, if after harvest you place several potatoes in the already empty soil and mark where they are, you can come once a week, dig around the marks and collect the wireworms eating you lure. Keep in mind, that you also should kill beetles when you see them, they usually do not do any harm themselves, so we tend to ignore them.
Just start over with new seeds.
Until they sprout, they must be kept continually moist. This may mean watering once or even twice per day (lightly). Once you see that a lot of them have sprouted, you can cut back watering to once a day, and after a while, you can cut back more and more.
My opinion is that most likely you didn't water enough to get the seeds to sprout. Sometimes, freshly sprouted seeds are eaten by birds, snails or slugs almost from day 1 of sprouting, but usually you will see some sign of the sprout or the culprit when that happens.
Bigger, deeper set seeds like beans are less likely to need twice-a-day watering. Small seeds, planted shallowly are more likely to need continuous moisture.
--McKenzie
Agee with McKenzie. Sounds to me like you underwatered them. It was probably too hot as well, given that some beets and peas (more tolerant of warm soil) germinated and no spinach or lettuce did.
If watering daily isn't possible, increase your seeding depth.
Johnnyseeds says that most winter squash gets sweeter with storage time, as carbohydrates break down into sugars. I understand that the process can be accelerated by keeping the squash warm for a few weeks after harvest, though that may cut down on the storage lifetime. Interestingly, the caratenoid (think vitamin A) content of butternuts also increases with storage time, so older squash are healthier as well as sweeter.
I'm in the same boat as you are. I planted artichokes for the first time this year, they got to a certain size and stalled out, and I got no 'chokes from them.
As for overwintering them, I'm going to pile on a thick layer of leaves later in the fall and then put a tarp over top of the leaves to keep them dry and to insulate them more. Hopefully it works.
Rodney
What Rodney said. Mulch and lots of it. What kills overwintering plants in general is not the deep cold of mid-winter (which is typically accompanied by deep snow cover in temperate zones) but the freeze-thaw cycles of late winter and early spring. Keep the mulch on until the soil thaws completely and nights don't drop below 20 degrees anymore.
Well, there kind of is an air pocket unless the water is filled all the way up to the top of the gravel. And actually, there should be an overflow hole that prevents this from ever happening.
The gravel does not wick water. It's purpose is to hold up the soil (or potting mix) without wicking. Think of it this way: both the water reservoir, and the air gap above it just happen to be filled with gravel.
In any event, there should be an air pocket, in my opinion. I think the roots will rot otherwise. (unless you are growing rice or something).
McKenzie
Eggplant and pepper are both perennial, so you can, in principle, keep them going over the winter. They are both highly frost intolerant. Light freeze and they're DEAD. Eggplant will shut down production entirely in temps like you're having. They like nighttime temps in the 60s or above. You may still get a few peppers.
I suspect that indoors, without much light, they wouldn't do that well. But if they survived, you could get a head start on production in the spring.
For container plants, protection from animals just needs a little chicken wire.
Great, that was exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks for the response.
I agree, not a problem, IME.
BTW, I find pole varieties on fencing is a much easier and better way to raise dry beans than bush cultivars.