ideas for preparing beds for next season
 

All my beds are cleaned and thinking ahead.. Any suggestions appreciated tia, John

I like to keep the worms happy so I added a layer of shredded leaves, rough compost, dried grass clippings from the paths under the top few inches of soil. Then I add added some of Steve Solomon's complete organic fertilizer and some sifted compost, worked it in and covered with finely shredded leaves. Watered a bit to settle the leaves in place. In the early spring all I need to do is move the leaves aside and plant the peas, etc. I may use a broad fork before planting the later crops, if needed.

kath

I cant do anything to mine.
Right now I have onions, basil, sage and yes even tomato plants loaded with tomatoes in them.:(:roll:

Worth

[url]http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=10943&highlight=lowenfels[/url]

Here's a link that might interest. Ami

[QUOTE]I cant do anything to mine.
Right now I have onions, basil, sage and yes even tomato plants loaded with tomatoes in them.:(:roll:
[/QUOTE]

:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

[QUOTE=kath;379844]I like to keep the worms happy so I added a layer of shredded leaves, rough compost, dried grass clippings from the paths under the top few inches of soil. Then I add added some of Steve Solomon's complete organic fertilizer and some sifted compost, worked it in and covered with finely shredded leaves. Watered a bit to settle the leaves in place. In the early spring all I need to do is move the leaves aside and plant the peas, etc. I may use a broad fork before planting the later crops, if needed.

kath[/QUOTE]
I use to do very similar to Kath except I would plant winter rye as a cover crop. This year I'm doing almost exactly like Kath except I purchase a seed meal fertilizer similar to the Steve Soloman complete fertilizer without the lime components and then I add dolomite lime and Basalt dust.

Glenn

I just got all my tomato and pepper plants pulled yesterday in my Community Garden Plots. I am going to sprinkle liberally with Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust, which I am using for the first time. Then I will cover the bed with leaves to mulch to keep the weeds down and the worms happy. That will be the end of my prepping!

I am going to cover the beds with cardboard because the worms ate all the cardboard under my grass clippings pile. Not a shred of cardboard left and the nicest soil left under the grassclipping pile. It may be wrong but if the worms will work my beds the same way,then I will be very happy. we will see?

ron

thanks foe the tips.. I too am going yo use my mulch mower and dump my mower bag over my beds..i also will cover them with the black plastic mulch i never used this season.. (from the dollar store a buck a piece 4x8 feet) i have a half dozen , more than enough to cover the leaves to accelerate composting.. I want to test my soil with this capsule kit again beforehand.. so I get an idea about my soil ph to compare in the spring too. thanks for the replies! oh forgot to mention,,going to use a recommended dosage of soil acidifier i bought this early spring to lower soil ph too ( it lab tested high 7.4 ) i will sprinkle the rest pn two the beds that don't favor tomato plants

[QUOTE=amideutch;379846][URL]http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=10943&highlight=lowenfels[/URL]

Here's a link that might interest. Ami[/QUOTE]
good thread, but I still have a situation in two my beds lab tested 7.5 high ph spring 2013 .. so i just bought a cheap multi meter soil probe to test soil ph in hopes of adding anything before next growing season.. I will avoid tilling too this time as suggested.

I add lots of coffee grinds to all empty beds in the fall. Then I plant oats and mustard (Sept) or winter rye (Oct-Nov). This keeps the worms very happy, and my garden soil fluffy and rich.

If we had leaves, I'd add them too - but we are surrounded by cedar and hemlocks and have very few alders around.

Semi-composted cardboard on the garden paths gets raked into the beds too.

Tatiana

I don't till my garden so don't use cover crops. Too time intensive to hand turn and don't want to kill my worms. Going to keep building my soil and let the worms do the work.

You do not need to till when planting cover crops -

oats, buckwheat, and mustard greens will be killed by frost.

Winter rye can be cut close to the ground. It will not regrow, and its roots will aid soil aeration when the decompost.

My leeks are the only thing still occupying my garden. Latter today I'll be gathering leaves to shred and use, along with some compost, to cover the bare soil of my beds. Other than that, I will await spring, unless I find myself in possession of some nice stinky fish guts, heads/etc., that I can bury while the soil is still unfrozen.

If you have any horse stables or farms in the area see if you can get two or 3 bags of horse droppings and put on your bed. Do NOT dig it in but let is decompose over the winter. In the spring cover the bed with compost and that is it. When you plant out make sure you use myco's and beneficial bacteria and fungi. Do this every year and your beds PH will go down and your beds will be teaming with worms.

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