SS - you would be soooo proud of me! Went up with more straw today and mulched over the asparagus, rhubarb and round my bushes taht i planted last weekend. Then mulched the brassicas and some onions and garlic - ran out of straw then.
Other lotty men were laughing at me - but i thought that at least i wont be hoeing in spring and my veg will be lovely and clean.
So is there anything you shouldnt mulch with straw?
What a nerve larfing at you! I mulched around my leeks with straw and shredded paper and have lovely long white leeks without the effort of earthing up! They all have to fiddle-arse around earthing up and none have leeks as good as mine! I say knickers to 'em!
I am currently allowing the leaves that are falling from the oaks and apple trees to mulch my brassica patch for me! ;D
I agree with EJ. Laughing merely shows their ignorance, and contempt for ideas which would be considered new in their eyes. On our allotments we are always trying out various things, and I will be mulching one quarter of my plot this year (not enough mulch for 600 sq yds !!!). The quarter with the mulch is the part that would be given compost and fed ...
ps : I let my weeds grow, then harvest them, others think that my plot is unkempt, but they don't realise do they ;)
oo OO ;D
no fiddle-arsing for you lol
It's nearly a year since my first attack of mulch madness with straw (others use whatever they find easiest to get).
Only one thing to watch out for - small seeds won't make it up through mulch :'(
I've learned to scooch the straw away from seed drills/beds, then carry on as if you'd never heard of mulching. Once the seeds are up, draw the mulch back so their tops carry on getting sunshine. I've noticed my few carrot and parsnip had lovely clean shoulders, put this down to mulch protecting them from light and weather.
Or sow in modules first, then you can mulch from the start.
Straw is movable - if you want your e.g. asparagus or other beds to warm up quicker in spring, take the mulch off and pile or place it somewhere else.
Straw can be light and fluffy or wodgy - I put wodgy straw around perennials like the globe artichokes or rubub, or long growing JAs or brassica, for suppressing perennial weeds, and light and fluffy over onion sets so they can grow through.
I mulch everything, because I don't want to dig or weed - planting, harvesting and eating are the activities I enjoy most and can devote more time to. One of the regulars passes by with his spade from time to time and patiently explains to me what it's for - they still larf (not unkindly), but marvel a little too cos they can see how well the veggies do :) I make sure to admire their digging a lot ;)
How remiss of me, I forgot to add credits ...
My current fad with mulching is down to the very effective brainwashing by SS (in nicest possible way :) ) so I can't be considered part of the 'good' idea ...
SS is a bad influence I know!!!!!!!!
Men down lotty said it was too late to plant rhubarb AND asparagus - which i did last week... they then said they said they meant to put garlic in but didnt get round to it... i said i have some spares if they want... ITS NOT TOO LATE YOU KNOW... i said... im sure they chuntered when i left LOL.
Ok anything that grows will be mulched then... too early for seeds yet SS so i'll just mulch what i have going... must get some more straw, my paths have sunk so need to top up those now... straw does look rather lovely doesnt it!
Quote from: OliveOil on December 09, 2006, 16:42:34
SS is a bad influence I know!!!!!!!!
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/smilies/angel12.gif)
it's worth occasionally checking the mulch level and topping up when it gets incorporated - 8 inches of new laid mulch will smother most perennial weeds :)
talking of unseasonal planting, I took some leeklings - a neighbour had overplanted on his lottie seedbed - to a leekless chum today, she'll plant them out tomorrow. Why not?
btw credit where it's due - twas Robert_Brenchley got me started on this mulching malarkey(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/smilies/thumb.gif)
I put some leeklings in quite a few weeks ago now... the onions have overtaken... BUT i'm hoping in spring they might take flight.
thanks to SS and Robert B I say!
The straw does look awfully nice i must say AND i know where I've planted too!
Should i mulch the BBeans????
Once they've popped a couple of leaves through, I would! :)
So the basic answer is NO then... once it has poked it's head up mulch away!
;D
;D Think I was kind of brainwashed by some of Sprouts pictures, I had two car and two truck loads of manure with straw I raked off some of the straw and covered a few beds and dug in the manure before I knew it I had covered most of the plot. You could say I've been sprouted, you could start your own club Sprout and send us little mulch badges. :) ;) :D ;D ;D ;D :-*
that's about it dad! :-[ do you do remedial conciseness classes ;)
roflmao@kev ::) 8) ;D ;D
No SS but I do try very hard to get secondary pupils through GCSE's which is very similar!
;D
Quote from: OliveOil on December 09, 2006, 17:43:30
Should i mulch the BBeans????
I do, before they germinate. They come straight up through a couple of inches of light mulch (dead leaves or grass cuttings), but I wouldn't use heavy stuff like stodge.
I put straw all round my strawbs last year and the weeds just grew through it - was about 4 - 6 inches thick - but guess it was not thick enough, but any thicker and the strawbs would have been buried too. ???
put straw round our leeks too - very please with them :)
Beginner alert!!! Do i understand this right then, i wait until the seed has germinated and plant has grown to about a couple of leaves then put straw all over the top of it and they'll still grow up through the straw?
pointy sprouts like onions and garlic will grow through a light covering of straw, you can cover them straight away and it keeps the birds off the onion sprouts
for the rest, I sort of scooch it up to the sides of the rows to suppress the weeds once they've germinated - you want their leaves to see daylight! As they grow, you can mulch deeper - up to 8 inches will suppress most weeds, including perennials :)
think tucking up rather than covering ::) ;D