Sherry...YOU ARE KIDDING, RIGHT ?????
I have gone insane. Totally insane!
You are right CC, it would get icky fast if I put it under the plastic. The tomato plastic is supposed to do miraculous things for tomatoes. I must read more about it. So I should put hay on top of the black fabric mulch? But when it breaks down it just stays on top and does not enrich the soil?
Chele, I was hoping you would post a pic!
Tracey, if I plant out all my seedlings I will be beyond my 3 plots! LOL
Not only was I kidding, Margie, I stole it from a doggy pal, who stole it from her boss, who stole it from his sister, who lives in San Fran. Yes, Kell, it's nice, not being the only nutzo around, and now I can say, if you think we are whacky, you should get a load of the geranium people...
I've never seen a geranium wall before. LOL
Kell, did you want to see the baby, me or my new surgical incisions? LOL I had to give up my appendix two weeks ago. Between that and the baby, that is why I have not been around so much. :) Don't you have some geraniums to water????
Michele, I hope you are feeling better. Did you have a whopper of an attack? We would love to see a picture of the kids. Not just the baby....all of them. How is your tall brug doing this year?
Kell,after thinking about this I would say lay down newspaper,wet it, and then mulch it with the hay......it will all biodegrade.
The landscape fabric I use in some spots has woodchips on it and by the next spring they have broken down,so I just lift the fabric and dump it on the dirt,then lay the fabric down again...but seeing that its not your property I would go with the paper and hay
No alfalfa hay, CC? I have been trying to work that in. I heard it was all that.
Chele, post a pic of each. I really want to see your belly.
Kell please pass on some of your energy to me. Wow I don't know how you do it all. Chele do you have another babe on the way?? I haven't even seen the last one yet.
Kell you could use a cover crop of alfalfa and mow it once every 6 weeks or whenever you can no longer walk through it easily. The fragrance of mown hay is wonderful!!! A cover crop of white clover or buckwheat would work also. White clover would remain short so you wouldn't have to mow though. These would all attact worms to your plot too and help improve the soil. IF you used the black plastic, by the end of summer you will have killed all weed seeds on the plot but also all helpful organisms you need for healthy soil. Without these organisms your brugs will do poorly. You can buy bales of cardboard from stores that compact them for recycling at about $5 each. They cover the ground quickly and last allot longer than newspapers. Either of these paper materials can be soaked in soapy water (newspapers) and sprayed down with soapy water (cardboard) to secure them to the ground while they await your mulch. Hope this helps!
This message was edited Jun 4, 2004 11:18 PM
Good to see you Donna!! I hope all is well and I know you are busy!
Kell,if you can find it,I would suggest straw,it may not have the benifit of hay,but it will not have the hay seeds,and don't forget the Doo!
Thud! I am not watering that! They need not talk about us brug nuts anymore, geranium people are way over the edge!
Kell you didn't save me any room, at all??????? I am going to cry, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Not fair, not fair at all!
Watch out for the straw. I could be full of oat seed and that is a pain. I went that route under my tomatoes and potatoes one year and had tons of oats growing in my garden. Never again.
LOL. I never thought about seed!! I sure do not need any more seed. There is grass going to seed all around it!
Iowagirl, no way I could mow it, first of all I will have no mower down there but also the Brugs are growing.
Maybe landscape fabric would be easiest? Does HD sell it?
I am afraid newspapers and cardboard will look messy. I am a guest there. Is newspaper and cardboard good for the soil when it breaks down?
Hey Tracey, if this works out I will grow some for you next year.
kell...my daughter bought a real heavy weight fabric cloth at Castco...a very large roll of it. Only about $30.00
And yes, paper is supposed to break down and be good in the soil...
made for landscape Margie? I must go to Costco today then! What if I put newspaer and cardboard under the breathable landscape fabric?
Thanks all for your help. I have never done this before. At home I do not have a square inch of empty soil to worry about such things.
I would probably go in there and spray with Roundup to kill what is growing and then throw out a lot of Preen and hope that nothing comes up. If any seeds did germinate, it would probably be few. However, I live in the country and only have my stuff to worry about. If there were lots of other things growing close by, it would have to be done on a very calm day and I always use a piece of cardboard as a barrier to plants when I'm spraying.
kell...yes, it is for landscaping ar Costco...kind of like a really heavy woven interfacing like you use for sewing...but very, very heavy...the water gets through, but the weeds don't! I helped her put it down last week-end...she had a box of large staple like stakes...and it went down very easy! Good luck!
Thanks Margie.
Brugie, my plots are in the back with a huge weed filled pasture behind it. I did spray all the seeding grass on my immediate perimeter last weekend with grass killer but it is hopeless for the field is huge. I suggested to the guy running it that he mow more. LOL. I do not think that went over well.
I have thought about using Preen. I will have to read the label.
Cardboard and newspapers or recycled grocery sack - any paper that is not shiney colored will work. Worms love it. In regard to the looks - you do have to pick a mulch to cover the paper with. It is the thickness of the paper or the cardboard pieces that retards the weeds and grass seed from growing. Water + light = weeds or grass. I would look for a landscaping cloth that large scale landscapers use. It is really heavy duty almost like the shade cloth used to shade greenhouses. It also comes in very wide widths like 10' and could be easily rolled out or unfolded to serve your purpose. The more I think about it, I would lean towards a good weed eater and use it every 2 weeks. I know that sounds like alot, but the more you weedeat the less weeds you will have and the grass unless it is bermuda or St. Augustine that creeps and crawls and roots in - awful stuff. Grass that is 6" or less or even weeds for that matter go down with little effort. It is when it is a foot tall that it takes a long time. It is all work anyway you look at it, but I know you are a high energy person and much younger than I and your love of brugs will help you through.
LOL Iowagirl, I am a slug. I have been sitting here since 9 AM and have not moved an inch. My DH has brought me in food. But once I rally watch out. LOL
I donot like to sound so dumb, but what is a weed eater? A chemical or a machine? LOL Or maybe an animal? I sure would love a weed eater cute little animal, like a cat.
Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.
Well, I've just been waiting for the punch line here, kell. I REALLY thought you must be kidding!
Now that you're in it, I think the only thing you need is a Mantis! It will dig your holes (even clay) and weed to boot. I garden alone and it's the only thing that has kept me sane for my 20 odd years of gardening in clay. I can't remember the last time I 'dug' a hole! Too bad you don't have electricity out there, I just got the new electric one and really love it! Here's the real site, http://mantisgardentools.com/product_page.asp?cat_id=1&int= but check out eBay.
Here's what I would do. I imagine, you're planting in rows, the Mantis would make a deep, straight long furrow, put your pots down, and kick the loose dirt around it. Cover the whole line of pots with pine straw or wheat straw, leave walkways between them that you can use the cultivating tines to bury the weeds when they get too bad.
Let's hear from other Mantis lovers here, am I right?
A weed eater is what people in the south call a weed whacker.
Yes, violabird, the Mantis is a wonderful machine. I've had mine for 5 years and it has never failed to start, even the first time in the spring, and it is light and doesn't kill me to run it. I love it!!!
Love my mantis too.
I have a light weight Shindawa weed eater (whacker) that I purchased 2 years ago. What used to take me 1 1/2 days to weed eat here on our 10 acres including around the large pond has been reduced to about 6 hours flat. I have tried several other brands, and this one starts on 2 pulls and uses very little of the oil gas mixture and 3' of line usually lasts the entire 6 hours. Wonderful machine and economical to use. One year after using oat straw in my stawberry bed and pulling all the reseeding oats by hand which I just laid back down for more wonderful mulch - I tried 10" of nothing but shredded paper. It lasted 2 years also and I didn't have to put anything down under it. I suppose regular cardboard or newspaper would have worked even longer. I put the shredded paper all around my tomatoes and between the rows. It worked perfectly and on year 3 I tilled in what was left and since I lack the time and all the paper to shred now I just use mulched leaves about a foot deep all over the garden. I think I pull on the average of may 100 weeds each year from my garden. Last fall I had neither the time or energy to mulch my garden. This spring I don't have the time or energy again and it is covered with weeds. Huge mistake as I thought maybe tilling every week would be an option for me this year. Not to be and I forgot how much my clay soil suffers here from tilling more than twice a year. I am slowly building a nice new garden on top of all the hardpan clay and the tilling hasn't helped much. Till and it looks and feels wonderful so I plant, it rains, and I have concrete again. So I gave up tilling and started mulching. Just make your rows or holes for your crop in the mulch, plant and no weeding! Works great. You might be able to find shredded paper from businesses where you live. My DH became ill and we had to sell our business and close it down for moving it to Dallas, Texas. I sat and literally shredded business papers we did not need from several file cabinets the first winter yielding huge 5'x3' plastic bags of shredded paper. It worked great but my garden is only 25'x50' and the 3 beds I used it on are about half that size. Good luck with your project!
(((((Kell))))) I am totally awestruck. Wow.... Bless your heart sweetie, and your husband's too. We are really looking forward to seeing lots of pictures.
LL
Iowagal, where are Shindawa weed eaters sold?? I looked for a www but cannot locate their's. I have to buy a new one right away and I'd love to find one that would reduce my time from 1 1/2 days to 6 hours, it must be a humdinger, huh??!! Is there a particular model that is best??? TIA!!! SherryLike
Give me a few minutes and I will go out and give you the correct spelling (probably mispelled the name) and the make and model number so you have that info. Be back shortly!
I am back Sherry - It is a Shindaiwa Home Pro Model 22T and it only weights 9 lbs. which is much less than the Ryobi's I have gone through in 3 years here. My neighbor bought his Shindaiwa 9 years ago and has never had a problem with it and he recommended it to me as it cuts through stuff like butter - I had major tall weeds then too. The website is www.shindaiwa.com but sorry to say it is not American made. The local man who sells them here also sells Dixson lawnmowers and would love to sell me one of those also, but we are John Deere here and my 425 JD has a bagger so I can catch all the leaves and mulch for my gardens, beds and trees. Good Luck - you will love this little machine!!!
Thanks, Iowagal, I added it to my favorites and was surprised to find a dealer only 20 miles away!! I had never heard of Shindaiwa but there are lots of dealers in this area. I like hearing what someone else has to say before I buy gardening stuff. I do know that I'll never buy another weed eater or blower from WalMart - sometimes cheap isn't better!! I appreciate you giving me the info!!!!!!!! SherryLike
Oh you are most welcome. This baby will be more expensive but in the end was less expensive than 2 Ryobies and I had a heck of a time starting them also. This Shindaiwa has a straight shaft to it also Sherry. I though because I am so short and have those darn pond banks to cut close to the water that a curved shank was best. Now I know why too that it took so long to use the old ones - my back was killing me and I hated weedeating! This new baby has this straight shaft and the pressure is relieved from the lower back and shoulders - and it is so much more enjoyable to use. Good luck!
That's exactly the kinda review I was looking for, Iowagal!!! They should have women, that do their own work, selling that stuff. I know EXACTLY what you mean about the curved shank, it just kills my back/shoulders and I'm tall. I got a straight shanked one 2 years ago, and, my, oh, my, what a difference. Like you, I want to do the work around the barn grotto, where the majority of my brugs live. And, exactly like you, if my plants are damaged, I'll know I only have myself to blame. Thanks again!
Hey Kell, you have any updated pics?? I'd love to see how your 3 brug homes look now.
I will take a pic the next time I go down. They are doing OK. Not great but OK. The wind is so fierce there. I am hoping they are putting down a huge root system and will take off soon! There is aguy next to me who has a fantastic veggie garden. It is growing like crazy! He looks at me like I am nuts wasting all that space. LOL
Kell, he sounds like one of my neighbors. He'll grunt and tell me if I was gonna do all that work, it would be for something I could eat. LOL
LOL...mine isn't a neighbor, it's my Mom! She just doesn't understand all the time, effort or money put into gardening. Every few days she makes this comment....."One day you're gonna wish you could eat those plants"! LOL She may be right, but for now I'm happy!
Looking forward to seeing pics Kell!
Hey Brinda, that was about what my Dad told me about my hubby before we got married. LOL He said "you think you can eat him now. In a few years, you'll wish you had"
LOL Ada, I am not sure I get that..................
Yer not the only one Kell !
Comon Ada, 'esplain it to us folks =)
This message was edited Jul 1, 2004 10:00 PM
He meant that you love him so much now, you feel like you could just eat him with a spoon but in a few years (when things get rough) you'll wish you had ate him (and he wouldn't be around then). Come on girls, you've got to get this. LOL
You know when you first start out, they jump to do anything and everything and after a few years, they tell you, if you want it done, do it yourself. LOL
This message was edited Jul 1, 2004 11:24 PM