This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy was my first dog and he thought the garden was his, even though I did all the work. Now Suzie and Charley follow in his footsteps. We're located near Boston (USDA zone 6A). I have a community plot, a backyard vegetable garden, fruit trees, berry bushes, chickens, and bees. I use sustainable organic methods and do my best to grow all of my family's vegetables myself.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
winterizing the garden
It was pretty chilly this morning. I guess winter will come again after all ....
Skippy and I did a few chores to continue to winterize the garden. "We" planted spring bulbs, turned over the bird bath, watered the dry fall greens, and "our" main job - mulch. I collected freshly cut grass from the fields and started mulching my beds.
Mulching with grass trimmings: I feel good tonight knowing my plants are tucked in with a nice covering of mulch. The fields nearby were recently mowed, so I collected cuttings and mulched my recently planted garlic bed. This bed also has carrots, broccoli and red lettuce. The grass trimmings probably have a lot of weed seeds. I'll see how bothersome this is in the spring. For now, its an easy and cheap solution for mulching. I've heard that our local hardware store has a new shipment of salt marsh hay. Tomorrow I'll buy a few bales of this, but at $10 a bale and knowing that mowing hay is not so good for the salt marsh, I'm wondering if grass trimmings aren't the better mulch.
Planting bulbs: I planted 5 small botanical tulip bulbs (Violacea black base) and 2 daffodils bulbs. I remember thinking how nice the spring flowers looked in other plots last year. Just a few go a long way.
The quotes above are because Skippy didn't help AT ALL today - HE wanted to PLAY. Skippy dug a BIG hole and ran all over the garden. I think the crisp fall air must feel GOOD to a puppy! That's OK, we went for a nice long walk in the fields together.
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2 comments:
The mulch looks so warm and comfy!/ Tyra xoxo
I use chopped leaves and grass from my lawn as mulch. When I run out I buy straw to use as mulch and on things like blueberries & strawberries I use pine needles.
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