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Garden Gate:  Let's Talk Green Manure, Girls...  |
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Ninibini
True Blue Farmgirl
7577 Posts
Nini
Pennsylvania
USA
7577 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 22 2014 : 3:26:36 PM
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Hi girls!
I know a lot of us are starting to wrap up our gardens and tuck them into bed for the winter. I really want to share with you a happy mistake/stroke of luck we encountered last spring, because it may be something you want to consider this fall.
After our dear farmgirl sister Lisa, aka Nubidane, recommended I read the post by our dear farmgirl sister Linda, aka wooliespinner, about the "Back to Eden" garden movie, I was fascinated. I absolutely loved it. Being a rather novice gardener (Okay, for those of you who don’t know, people in these here parts USED to laugh and tout me as the “Al Capone of Green Thumbs!), I wanted to be sure I researched it to death because when I do something, I want to do it right. Well, it seemed a bit overwhelming: what seeds would need to be planted for my region and soil amendment, when to plant, when to till, how long to wait, etc., etc. Then our dear Linda posted about her “big wonderful pile of woodchips” - www.maryjanesfarm.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=63657 - and I got on the horn right away and put in my own order with our electric company. Sadly, nothing ever came. So last fall, I had planned on planting some seeds to try a green manure cover crop and things went all haywire in my life and I just wasn’t able to do it. We covered most of the garden with straw, left the black fabric down where it lay, and turned in the garden for the night.
Early last spring the straw sprouted. I was recovering from surgery and wasn’t allowed to do any heavy garden work, and my husband and son were helping a friend in their spare time, so I just let it go. I looked online to see what straw was, exactly, and learned that most of the time it consisted of buckwheat. Since that was one of the seeds recommended as green manure for our area, I threw caution to the wind and let it grow. By April, we had lush green growth everywhere that rose up to my husband’s waist. I asked Linda what she thought – would it be a good green manure, or should we just remove it all? She basically said go for it, she had something similar happen to her before and it worked just fine. It couldn’t hurt to try. My husband gallantly went out to the garden, pulled up his sleeves, and hand turned over every bit of the grass into the garden for me. We waited on pins and needles for a month because we knew we needed to let it break down in the garden for a while before planting. Memorial Day weekend we planted seeds and seedlings and held our breath.
The first couple of weeks it looked as though our plants were dying and as if nothing was going to grow. I later learned that they were probably just in shock because they had not had all those wonderful natural nutrients at their roots before, and they weren’t sure what to do. At the time, however, I was so down-hearted because my garden looked pathetic. I was very thankful that there would still be time to plant some good things if we needed to. Then suddenly, that third week we had a good rain and the entire garden BURGEONED!!! By the end of May, we were already picking all sorts of wonderful things! Nothing – NOTHING – had ever grown that quickly or healthily in our garden before! I kept saying to my husband that we must’ve gotten a “Three Mile Island” rain or something; but no – we were the only ones in our neighborhood who had anything growing and producing at that point. My neighbor commented how beautiful and lush my garden was. To be honest, just four weeks after planting at the end of June, it looked like a jungle. We let it do its thing, and boy, was it a happy garden indeed! We even had things grow in there that we hadn’t planted! It was amazing. Below are some pictures of our garden, taken July 4th. Remember now, this was just about five weeks after we planted everything!!!
Check out the sunflowers – they were grown from seed!
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Notice the evidence of pests on the broccoli and cabbage... they were planted in the black fabric section. They still burgeoned, so they must've benefited from the green manure tea during the rain!
I kid you not! All that just five weeks after planting! Unbelievable!!!
Now, in all fairness, we really did do one other amendment that could have contributed. A dear friend gave us pig manure that had been composting for five years, was it? Maybe it was seven. I can’t remember anymore. Anyhow, he had used the same compost in his garden, but when we checked in with him in July, he said his garden was doing, to put it in appropriate words (he had cussed a LOT over it), poorly, just like everyone else’s gardens. He was shocked to hear how well ours was producing! He said it definitely had to be due to the green manure, because it could not have been the pig manure – he had used that himself.
As an aside, our favorite nursery owner had been crazy excited that we got that pig manure. He said there is nothing better for the garden! He also warned, however, that we should not use it every year. It contains a lot of natural salts, as does horse and cow manure; if used too often or too much, it can actually harm the soil. His recommendation was to use it every three years or so, if we can get it. We haven’t seen him since May, so we’re just dying to share the results of the green manure with him!
ANYHOW…
There were some really amazing things that happened in the garden this year. First, the only place we had ANY pest problems were in the sections of the garden that had been covered with the black cloth. All the areas where the straw grew and was turned under remained virtually pest free – squash bugs and squash vine borers, my mortal arch-nemeses, included. We also didn’t have any problem with powdery mildew until the end of August. That NEVER happens. We are accustomed to seeing that come after the first heavy rains of June. Not this year. And to be honest, it didn’t take much work to get rid of it, either. One light dusting of food grade diatomaceous earth and we were golden. We didn’t have to fertilize, either, nor did we water the garden even once. We just let everything grow where it wanted – even the weeds – and let Mother Nature work her magic. When it rained, the green manure continued to provide nutrients to the soil with the natural “compost tea” that was created. The plants protected each other from the sun’s heat and the pests, and the soil managed to retain all the necessary water. It was absolutely incredible. It started to look like a mad jungle by mid-June! Our vegetables sprawled and produced more than we’ve ever seen in our tiny plot, there weren’t very many weeds at all, and the sunflowers got to be over ten feet tall! Our tomato and pepper plants SWELLED with fruit, which is amazing, because they have always been a bit difficult for me to grow well. We even got a nice little crop of fingerling potatoes from our planting LAST year which hadn’t seemed to produce back then at all! And everything tasted so much richer and sweet this year! I was thrilled to be able to put up more than a year’s worth of vegetables, and still we managed to keep our neighbors and friends elbow-deep in garden goodness all summer long. It was absolutely incredible. The neat thing is, our garden is STILL producing a little bit! I’ll be planting some cold winter veggies this weekend. A little late in the season, perhaps, but after this summer’s success, I’m okay with whatever happens!
Last weekend as we headed out to buy our supply of straw for this year, I just had to find out of what our straw consisted, exactly. The little sign on the display said it is a mix of oat, rye and wheat (which I am almost positive means buckwheat). That is pretty much the perfect combination of grains for green manure for our area! Isn’t that something?! Next year I’d really like to just buy some oats and buckwheat seeds to plant instead of using straw. I think it would be so great to grow and process our own grains and allow the green part to fertilize our beds. For now, though, it sure is exciting to me to be able to use the straw as an option.
I hope this inspires some of you to give it a try. It’s probably not very economical for those of you with larger gardens, but for those of you with smaller plots, I highly recommend it! I can’t help but wonder how many other people have this little gem covering their own garden beds, and have no idea what it can do for them… Oops! Shhhhhh!!! ‘Better not let the store get wind about this, though. If they find out, the price of straw is going to soar!!!
Happy Fall Y’All!
Nini
Farmgirl Sister #1974
God gave us two hands... one to help ourselves, and one to help others!
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Edited by - Ninibini on Sep 22 2014 3:39:30 PM |
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nubidane
True Blue Farmgirl
2880 Posts
Lisa
Georgetown
OH
2880 Posts |
Posted - Sep 25 2014 : 6:58:48 PM
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Nini
Your plants look gorgeous!
I do think it is a combo of the green manure and the pig manure. Linda and I have had some success, but not the bounty you have. In the video, he shows filtering chicken manure on a screen to add to his established garden, but I think it won't hurt to use it even in the beginning.
My gardens that were raised and somewhat established soil wise, did even better with the chips. But my HUGE garden, which is only about 2 yrs old, and has never been tilled; well it did not thrive with all of the chips.
We are going to be sure to use chicken manure throughout the fall and winter to dress that area.
AND, (not to add a new player to the mix), but my aunt who lives in northern OH, has suffered from MUCH rain, and her garden fizzled, EXCEPT her hugelgarten. Yep, another Garden of Eden type thing. Lay branches, logs etc down, add leaves, straw, compost, grass, more leaves, compost etc.
Let it break down over the winter if you wish, or, if you want to plant in it right away, you need a bit of topsoil on the top of the mound.
Well, it just so happened that hubby had 2 HUGE maples that a landscaper brought down for firewood. So one Sat afternoon, we made a big giant hugelgarten patch with the stray branches, limbs, and dried leaves. It is about 3 ft high, 20 ft long, and 10 ft wide right now, but should break down over the winter. We are going to add a ton of leaves once fall really sets in. And we shall see!!
One experiment after another, but this was so timely, and we had the wood, so, there you go!
Your garden looks beautiful! And on a small city lot. You deserve the Best In Show ribbon!
"We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” – R.R. |
Edited by - nubidane on Sep 25 2014 7:00:10 PM |
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Ninibini
True Blue Farmgirl
7577 Posts
Nini
Pennsylvania
USA
7577 Posts |
Posted - Sep 26 2014 : 12:09:46 PM
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Thanks, Lisa! I told you how crazy the garden grew - remember?! Not looking as good these days, though. But it sure was exciting while it lasted!
I don't know... The guy who gave us the pig manure really wasn't happy with the results he received. But it sure did seem to work for us, huh? I'm wondering if maybe the whole wood chip thing is that it didn't do as well for you yet because it was your first year. I seem to remember that it gets better as it deteriorates. That's what we were thinking about the grass we turned under from the straw. I think that letting it rest in the ground for that month was really important for the greens to break down well, allowing the good organisms and bacterias to grow and work their magic in the soil, you know? Whatever happened, it worked! EVERYTHING suddenly burgeoned overnight, grew and fruited so quickly! It was shocking, to be honest. I thought maybe there had been chemicals or something in the straw, but the only thing I found was that it could contain a fire retardant which would make things grow unevenly and die from strange symptoms. I didn't see evidence of any of that. Just to be sure I called the store from which we purchased it, but they assured me that they did not use fire retardant on their straw, nor were there any other chemicals used in growing the grains. They purchase it from a local organic farm. Needless to say, I was very, very relieved! Works for me!
Funny you should mention hugelkultur! I got Sepp Holtzer's book on permaculture a while back and watched a few videos about hugelkultur and was absolutely fascinated. When my hubby pulled down the Christmas tree last winter (grown locally, cut fresh, no chemicals), my intent was to try something on a small scale in my yard this past summer, but I just couldn't get to it. Right now it's composting quite well, though. Maybe next year. I sure would love to hear more about your experience, as well as your aunt's, when you have more time! I just LOVE the whole concept! I think it's SO cool you've started one!!! I'm excited for you! Good luck!
My neighbors were all curious and a little envious of my garden, to be honest. That's not to sound braggy or anything, but the truth is NOBODY around here had much success with their gardens this summer, except for us (and like I said - we definitely shared!). Everyone wanted to know what we were doing differently from them, and were VERY surprised to learn about the green manure. Many hadn't even heard of it. They were shocked that I hadn't applied any fertilizer (other than the initial piggy poo compost amendment, and the compost we had made ourselves). They were also amazed that we hadn't watered - not even once! I'm totally serious: this year's garden turned out to be its own amazing ecosystem. It really took care of itself! I did let it run wild, but it really loved it - it was such a happy, vibrant, ALIVE place! You'd be amazed what came out of our small, city plot! We sure were! Surprisingly, I haven't seen any of the neighbors with bales of straw in their yard yet, nor has anyone mentioned buying seeds, but I sure hope it catches on. :)
Hugs -
Nini
Farmgirl Sister #1974
God gave us two hands... one to help ourselves, and one to help others!
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Edited by - Ninibini on Sep 26 2014 12:10:30 PM |
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katmom
True Blue Farmgirl
17161 Posts
Grace
WACAL Gal
WashCalif.
USA
17161 Posts |
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Ninibini
True Blue Farmgirl
7577 Posts
Nini
Pennsylvania
USA
7577 Posts |
Posted - Sep 28 2014 : 07:23:23 AM
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LOL! Grace!!! I thought you were my friend!!! LOL! ;) Hugs - Nini
Farmgirl Sister #1974
God gave us two hands... one to help ourselves, and one to help others!
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Garden Gate: Let's Talk Green Manure, Girls... |
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Let's Talk Green Manure, Girls...
