Stop Weeding Your Gardens And Do This Easy Trick

Surprisingly, not many people know that you can easily keep weeds out of your garden.  Weeds not only are unsightly, but they steal the nutrients from the plants you are trying to grow.  Hand weeding takes forever and, I don't know about you, but by the time I'm done weeding, I feel like I turn around and more have snuck up and started growing.  It's a never ending process.  The store bought commercial weed block is expensive and once you want to tear it up, it just shreds.  Chemical sprays, like Round-Up, aren't very good for the environment.  They harm beneficial insects and I don't want that stuff anywhere near my veggie garden.  I don't need to eat poison.  Mulching your garden will help tremendously, especially if you use a mulch that will decompose and feed your plants.  Rocks and plastic mulch will work, but rocks are hard to weed around and very hard to dig in and the plastic will leach chemicals into your beds.

I like to use wood mulch or straw/hay but unless I get it really thick (4 or more inches), I still get a lot of weeds.  Thick mulching prevents soil erosion, retains moisture in the soil, and keeps the roots of the plant warm during the cold winters.  Laying down cardboard or newspapers really helps keep weed seeds from germinating in the ground and weeds from roots already in the soil won't grow through it.  You can even lay it directly over your lawn and not have to de-sod first when putting in a new garden or expanding an existing one.  This makes less work, it saves me from buying lots of expensive mulch, and I can recycle paper and cardboard!  Win, win, win!  Another great benefit of using these materials for weed control is that they decompose and become part of the soil so it feeds your plants.  Another win!

Now you may think, how am I suppose to get tons of boxes or newspaper?  Who gets a newspaper anymore?  You can ask people (Craigslist, friends, neighbors, even enemies - but only if you need to) for leftover newspapers or find a local recycling drop off and get the newspapers from there.  I have found that cardboard boxes are easily found for free from grocery and other stores. Cardboard is the best material to use for weed control in large areas because it's easier to handle then several sheets of newspaper.  The cardboard is also heavy enough that, when wetted, won't blow away like newspapers.  For curved beds, just cut your newspaper or cardboard to follow the curves.  Cardboard is also good for as a base for a lasagna garden or raised vegetable bed.

Some tips for using cardboard:

• Use brown cardboard only—avoid white, brightly printed or waxed.
• Remove any tape or staples.
• Overlap edges by about 6 inches.
• Water the cardboard well before you add mulch.
• Poke holes through the wet cardboard if you need to add plants.
• You can add wood chips, straw, compost, or any other organic material on top.
• Newspaper can be used instead of cardboard

 If using newspaper is easier for you, use 4-5 sheets (or more).

Since cardboard is a "brown" and carbon rich, include nitrogen-rich "green" materials, like compost, coffee grounds, cured manure. Here’s a little trick: sprinkle a light layer of rotting vegetables on top of the garden area before you put down the cardboard to entice worms. When making a new vegetable garden, cover the cardboard with a 1-3″ layer of composted manure or other finished compost and then cover that with clean straw or leaves.

Will you eventually get weeds?  Yes.  There is no barrier, cardboard or landscape fabric, will stop wind-born seeds or runners that creep over from another area.  If you keep your garden well mulched on top of the cardboard, you will find that weeds are easier to remove or rake through.

 

 

 

I Think I'm Addicted...

to gardening.  I really need to do some laundry, and the dishes are piling up, but my mind is stuck on adding a vegetable garden to my house.  I currently garden at Husband's parents house.  They have 2 acres of land and plenty of room for me to add a vegetable garden.  I feel like I am inconveniencing them.  I may not be, but I feel like I am.  Husbands dad tills the soil, waters, adds amendments, and other things to help out.  I really appreciate it, because I can't pack the kids up and head out there everyday like I could if it were at my house.  The plan has always been to add a garden to our new house.  We just bought it a year ago and were going to wait around five years to do so.  Husband wonders why I don't just keep gardening at his parents, but says he's not the one that does it.  Our house backs up to the fence.  According to our HOA, we aren't allowed to claim the back part of our property.  We live on 1/2 an acre, but we really only get 1/4 of an acre.  This means that we have two side yards.  One is huge and fenced down to almost the front of the house.  This is where the kids play. 

The other side is only fenced down about 25 feet.  This part of the yard is not used, so I measured it all out and decided that I could use it for vegetables.  I wasn't sure if Husband would agree.  I also wanted to propose mulching that whole side yard.  I even thought up a case and had tons of pros to me stripping the grass from that whole side and turning it into a garden.

• That side of the yard is currently unused
• I can easily plant, harvest, and weed
• No need to haul the kids to his parents and try to keep an eye on them in a yard that has some dangers (piles of concrete blocks and bricks that the kids try to climb and end up falling and getting hurt, no water filled pools or buckets for the kids to drown in, I'm not sure if there are thorny or poisonous things growing there - it's a big yard, kids won't pull up all their plants, kids try to climb through their doggy door) not super dangerous or anything, but I have to keep a close eye on them which is hard to do when I'm trying to garden
• No need to mow that side of the house
• I can move plants around easily and can always change up where I'm planting

When I brought up using that side, he agreed that as long as it's enough room, that it'd be fine.  I then said, "Now I need to decide if I should try to do beds, flat or raised, or just mulch the whole thing into a garden.  Mulching the whole garden would be so much easier then keeping the rows so you can mow between them."  This is were he interrupted me.  I was so ready to convince him that mulching the whole side yard would be best and he tells me to definitely mulch the whole thing.  He doesn't want to try mowing between beds and if I want to turn the whole side yard into a grassless garden, then he votes for that because it'd be so much easier for both of us.  Whew! That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Now I just have to figure out how to position my vegetables next year.  I don't usually do this until January, but I'm too excited.  Now I need to get back to it!  I just love gardening!

Here's everything I need to plan.  I have a drawing of the space and I made three copies of it.  I won't use the original in case I need to make more copies.  I have my garden plans from 2011, 2012, and 2014 (2013 was just tomatoes in a row with zucchini since we were in the middle of moving) and I have my garden journal. 

 

 

The Weeds! I Need More Straw! 5-30-2014

 

 

Here are my sugar snap peas:

The left is Sugar Daddy Sweet Pea, they are shorter, they produce a lot of flat pods, and more grew from what I planted,

the right is Super Sweet Sugar Snap, there are about 1/2 as less plants from the same amount planted, they are taller and have thicker stalks, they produce a nice thick juicy pod

 

Look at how thick the Super Sweet is

 

 

Can you see how dense the Sugar Daddy grows?

 

 

Ready to pick!

 

 

Once he figured out not to pick the leaves, he did pretty good at making them disappear

 

He is so excited that he can eat something...he loves food

 

 

My first harvest of the year! 

 

 

Onions, Cukes, Carrots, Jalepeno, Rosemary, Cauliflower, Pumpkin, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans

 

Pumpkin

 

 

Cauliflower

 Carrot

Red Onion

 

Green Beans - Kentucky Wonder

 

 

Close up of Kentucky Wonder

 

Tomatoes:  I had a lot of thistle to pick and I didn't bring my raw hide gloves, just regular garden gloves

 

 Can you see the little tomato!?!

 

Look at that!

 

 

Zucchini:

My popsicle sticks that the kids love to play with and work great to label plants, they kind of blend in and are hard to see unless you are looking for them. I bought a big box here. The kids love them and they are super cheap.  1000 for $8 and free shipping! 



 

My watermelon is actually growing

My Father-in-law's lettuce....isn't it just beautiful, I want to plant some in my flower garden

 

 

View my compensation disclosure here

I actually planted annuals!

There was a sale on the mulch I use and I missed it.  I kept meaning to go out and pick some up, but I had the flu during the sale and then I was just busy trying to get my house back in order.  You know, life.  I ended up ordering it online an hour after the store closed on the day the sale ended.  I wasn't sure if I would still get the sale price, but it worked!  I then had four days to pick it up.  I decided to actually go the next day and just get it over with.  While I was there, I saw flowers and I just love flowers.  They cheer me up.  I decided I would go get some for my window boxes.  They didn't have much to choose from, but I still managed to get too many.  Look at all the pretty flowers sitting in my passenger seat.

I planted annual dianthus and sweet potato vine in baskets under my kitchen window.  They only had two vines to chose from.  Sidekick sweet potato vine and a shade vine.  I found out the last year I had used the shade vine.  I bought a pack of full sun flowers on clearance sale in June for container planting and it was petunias and geraniums and this shade vine.  The vine shriveled up and died pretty quickly, but the rest of it did fine.  Now I know I didn't do anything to the vine, it was just not meant for full sun.

Facing west:

Facing South

Aren't they pretty?  Is one vine enough?  I'm not sure how these will grow.

I can't wait for these to fill out the basket.

You may have noticed that I had more flowers in my van than I put in the boxes.  The front of my house doesn't have much color.  I have already planted pink phlox under my mailbox by the road to replace the pink perennial dianthus that did not survive our brutally cold winter.  They are hardy to -10/-20F and we got down to around -15/-20F.  I wanted to plant something near the front door though.  My house faces north so the front is a little shaded.  I planted impatients last year and they didn't flourish.  They stayed about the same size and looked dried out a lot.  My front walk gets at least 6-8 hours of sun in the morning, so there wasn't as much shade as I though there would be.  This year I decided to try petunias.  They are really pretty and I love the big flowers so hopefully they fill in nicely. 

I also needed to prune back some shrubs.  Since it was a new build 10 years ago, fast growing shrubs got planted and they are still around.  I'm hoping to take out the Burning Bushes in the front.  I have 2 windows to the left of my porch that are only 3 feet off the ground.  Burning bushes quickly grow to be 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide.  Are you seeing a problem yet?  I have 3 planted in a spot only 15 feet wide.  The amount of cutting I have to do to keep it from blocking my window and not chocking out my front porch is ridiculous.  I have 2 other Burning Bushes in little 2'-3' areas to each side of my driveway.  The only one that really bothers me is the one next to my front walk way because 2-3 feet is not enough space for a Burning Bush.  I also have what I think is a type of Juniper.  It also grows too fast and I have 5 in a 15 foot row in front of the Burning Bushes.

 

This is a before/during picture, I already planted a begonia before I thought to take a picture. 

Here is what greats you when you come to my house now.  Much more inviting.  Can you see the Evergreen shrub is only planted a foot from the walk?

 

 

I also have a fushia hanging basket.  It is so bright and has lots of flowers.

 

This is what it looks like from below

The smell of mulch fills my van

Vegetable Garden Update 5-13-2014

I got to plant some more vegetables the past two weekends.  On May 4th, I put hay down around my tomatoes and put the rest of the tomato cages in. 

 

May 4th: onions

 

 

May 4th: peas

 

May 4th: tomatoes 

 

I have 10 tomato cages that I made from remesh and I thought I would never need more than 10, so when we moved, we left the extra rebar behind.  We only had enough to make 6 more.  I planted 24 tomatoes this year.  I bought the $4 little 54" metal ones that will probably only make it 1-2 years before they are too broken.  Two welds broke while I was putting them in.  $60 is a lot to spend on tomato cages that break so fast.  Husband and I decided to see how well these hold up.  If they make it 5 years, then we'll probably just buy more when they break.  If they make them 1-2 years, then we will make some more remesh ones.  We can make 9 more out a 50' roll ($40) and then we add some metal supports ($3 or less) and they will cost $7.50 or less for each tomato cage.  Total cost would be less than $70 before tax.  We would have to assemble it though, which is why Husband wants to try the pre made ones.

On May 11th, I checked to see if anything had popped up and weeded the garden.  A lot of clover invaded the garden.  Dandelions and thistle are so much easier to weed out since they have one main root.  Clover is just a tangle of roots.  I felt like I was just taking out all the top soil.  I spent almost 2 hours weeding and only planted one row of green beans instead of two like I had planned.

Here's what I planted:
2 groups of Straight Eight Cucumbers
2 groups of Muncher (Burpless) Cucumbers - I don't know what kind I prefer, I typically go with Straight Eight
4 groups of Black Beauty Squash (what I call zucchini)
2 groups of Green Gourmet Hybrid Summer Squash (again, zucchini and not the kind I usually get, but it's what the store had)
2 groups of Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash (what I just call yellow squash)
A group of Crimson Sweet Watermelon
A group of Sugar Pie Pumpkin
A 15' row of Kentucky Wonder green bean
Two 5' row of Scarlet Nantes Carrot
A Black Krim tomato
A Rosemary plant

This upcoming weekend I plan on planting a 15' row of Blue Lake green beans.  I also need to purchase another bale or two of hay so I have enough to put down around everything else.  I'm not sure if I will put hay down where my onions are.  I never have before, but I might try because they are a pain to weed.  Well, isn't everything a pain to weed?  I was told by one person 5 years ago that mulching, even with straw, around onions will choke them out and they won't grow as well.  This has caused me to never mulch them, even though I hear of lots of people using straw around them with great success.  I will keep you posted on how the onions turn out.

How I Fertilize My Tomatoes and Avoid Blossom End Rot

 



When I first started planting tomatoes, I had a lot of problems with blossom end rot.  I can not tell you how sad it is to watch your tomato ripen and then to lose part of the bottom, or sometimes the whole thing, to rot.  Blossom end rot can also happen to squash or peppers.  Through research I found out that blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency.  To fix this organically, before you plant your tomatoes, you can amend the soil by adding lots of compost, bone meal, or lime (only if the soil is too acidic).  This will take a while to increase the calcium levels in the soil.  The ideal pH for calcium absorption is around 6.5.  Once you notice blossom end rot, there isn't too much you can do.  Some people have luck using Epsom salt, Tums, powdered milk, or egg shells.  I have tried the Epsom salt, Tums, and egg shells, without a noticeable improvement.

I prefer using an extended release fertilizer.  I am not good at weekly fertilizing.  I often will forget to do it for a few weeks.  The real problem is when I forget I already did it and do it again.  I have caused a few of my plants to get fertilizer burn from it.  Luckily, Miracle Grow has plant fertilizers, that you sprinkle on the soil when you plant and it will last for 3 months.  I wasn't sure how well it would work, but I tried it and I haven't gone back.  I noticed a huge difference in the health and production of my plants.  The first year I just used the regular kind: Miracle-Gro Shake 'N Feed All Purpose Continuous Release Plant Food.  The containers are super heavy duty and then I just refill it with whatever extended release plant food I happen to purchase.  I still had some problems with blossom end rot, so the next year, I looked at different kinds of plant food, but I could not find any extended release with added calcium.  I was worried I would have to try weekly fertilizing again.  I ended up stumbling upon some at a local nursery.  It was perfect and I have not had a problem with blossom end rot since. 

I even converted my mother.  She planted her tomatoes in a raised bed filled with Miracle Grow Garden Soil.  I helped build her raised bed and we both thought the Miracle Grow Garden Soil would be a good choice and since it states that it will feed your plants (flower and vegetable) for three months, I couldn't wait to see how fast her garden grew.  When I visited her later in the summer, the plants looked ok, but she complained of the soil drying out too quickly and requiring daily watering.  I'm assuming there was too much peat moss in the mix.  She also had some blossom end rot, which surprised me as well.

Here is a link to what I use: Miracle Grow Shake N Feed Calcium for Tomatoes.  I'm starting to see it more often, but sometimes I still can't find it at Lowe's or my local grocery store.  I have had to buy it from amazon a few times.

View my compensation disclosure here

Planting time

Now that our awful, long winter is over, it's time I plant and start to grow my vegetables.  I am lucky enough to be able to use Husbands parents backyard for growing.  They only live about 5 minutes away and have around 2 acres.  Our yard is only about a quarter acre and our lab just loves to eat any plant.  I have already lost a large rose bush and 3 butterfly bushes to her.  I have about 20 feet of sugar snap peas (some were damaged by a late hard frost), 12 Snowball cauliflowers, 175 onions, and 22 tomato plants.  Last year I only grew 14 tomato plants.  I ran out of tomato sauce in January, salsa in April, and I only have a few canned diced tomatoes left.  I have never grown cauliflower before so those are really just an experiment.  Our broccoli that we grew was too strong of a flavor.

My tomato varieties are:
16 Better Boys - my favorite beef steak tomato
2 Romas - trying them again, but they didn't yield very well and by the time the whole tomato was ripe enough to pick, it was turning brown inside
7 Sungold (3 are staying at home) - my boys treat these like they are candy and can not leave them alone, I was unable to grow any last year because I didn't start any from seed since we were moving, but the year before we had 2 of them and that wasn't quite enough, my soil at home isn't very good (10 year old house with awful clay soil) and the tomatoes I planted last year only grew to about 3 feet, we also didn't get much off of them because a 2 year old kept picking off all the green ones and throwing them down the driveway

I plan on growing 6 zucchinis and possibly 2 yellow squash.  I might plant some cucumbers.  I am also going to be planting Kentucky Wonder and some Blue Lake green beans after the sugar snap peas are done in about a month.  I don't know how much I'll get, but I'm hoping to get enough to freeze some.

My 6 year old wants me to plant carrots.  They didn't work out very well last time I planted them, so if I have room and remember, I will probably plant some of those.

Sugar snap peas

The ones on the left trellis are Super Sugar snap peas, and the ones on the right trellis are Sugar Daddy

 

Onions

white, red, and yellow

 

Tomato

a Better Boy inside it's cage