Comments | skeetermonkey: First 4 x 4 plot planted!

skeetermonkey

First 4 x 4 plot planted!

Jan 12, 2009 11:41

So, in a surfeit of work, I shifted 16 cubic feet of soil on Saturday night while everyone was partying. I dug a 4’ by 4’ hole, and then I sifted it all back in. The result was a nice, soft, loosely packed soil. That took about 3 hours. On Sunday at twilight, I laid out the grid and used a small 1 1/2” bowl to make indentations in the right ( Read more... )

Comments 8

peregrinejohn January 12 2009, 20:48:31 UTC

Cats are varmints, yes. Bloody nuisance of a time convincing any female human of that, in spite of indoor varmint-like behavior on their parts as well. They are a definite menace to gardens. When I finally move, I get to reconstruct my garden, including the many, many things I've learned since last time. It will be 10'x10' and entirely surrounded by a frame of 2" chicken wire, from 7' above ground to 6" below. (Cats are only 1 species of nuisance ( ... )

skeetermonkey January 12 2009, 21:14:01 UTC

The weed thing isn't as bad after I sift the soil. On the patch I did last month, it has subsequently rained and I think I got 2 foxtails in a 4x4 section. No mallow, nothing else. That may be because the topsoil is buried and sifted, so the stuff on top hasn't as many seeds; I don't know. But it's been pretty weed free. With more rain, perhaps it'll have more weeds, but watering in a surgical fashion also means I have less green stuff to pull up because it just won't grow without water ( ... )

don_fitch January 15 2009, 06:09:27 UTC

Don't let Terry scare you. Yup, many weed seeds can survive for years under storage conditions, or even in the soil. But in the latter situation, the percentage that survive, for most species, seems to drop off quite rapidly. Rhizometous grasses, such as Bermuda, and nut-grass, are Seriously Evil, but assiduous persistence does pay off. Of course, if you relax vigilance for just one season, you're back at (or close to) square one. Generally speaking, I abhor a "Zero Tolerance" approach, but when considering weeds, in a small garden, much good can be said for it.

pecunium January 13 2009, 00:02:52 UTC

Plant Rue. I can provide you with cuttings. It's the anti catnip. I put some in the half-barrels and boom... no more elevated cat-box.

It does self-seed, but the seeds take forever to ripen, so a quick pass with nippers and you are home free. It also attracts pollinators, predatory wasps and Papilio cresphontes butterflies; so all in all it's a win.

skeetermonkey January 13 2009, 18:33:41 UTC

Rue it is. Call me about the half barrels; I'm not sure where I'll put them, as I have planned out all the space, but I guess we can put them on the sidewalk portion. Maybe I can get some of the junk moved off the end of the garden, too... that'd give gobs more room.

don_fitch January 14 2009, 06:43:27 UTC

I'm glad I clicked on your lj handle in one of Terry's posts -- Instant Bonding on two currently-significant points. I'm in the process of switching plots at the Baldwin Park Community Gardens (still only c. 9x20 feet, but this one is in full sun) and am gradually prepping the soil by digging down a good foot, adding about 30% (commercial bagged) composted manure, and sifting it through a 1-inch mesh screen (mostly for through mixing & aeration -- the extant soil is a pretty good silt, but it's imported fill and below about 8 inches there's some demolition debris from the Mexican restaurant formerly on the site ( ... )

skeetermonkey January 14 2009, 19:46:09 UTC

Don ( ... )

don_fitch January 15 2009, 05:49:17 UTC

At home, my sifting screen (used mostly for compost, which I like to apply while still rather coarse) is just a c. 2x2-foot piece of old 1-inch-mesh hardware cloth (heavier-gage wire than is now available at Home Depot or Lowes), used with a 5-gallon plastic bucket. Works okay because I think small, prefer the results when the compost is rubbed through by hand, and have arthritis that requires stopping as soon as the wrists begin to hurt, lest I be out of action for about three days. But yes, for somewhat larger-scale work, mounting the mesh on a frame is probably the best way to go. At the Community Garden, someone with rather good carpentry/joinery skills has made a frame of 2x4s (with four handles, so two people could use it) that perches atop a wheelbarrow -- which has some advantages. (I could wish it a bit larger, to cover the barrow completely, but then there'd soon be a problem with the screen sagging under the weight of soil, and deteriorating rapidly ( ... )