Hello
So i am the excited owner of my new plot hoorah!
Its a lovely loam (maybe a little sandy) hoorah again! and i'm looking to get a load of manure on it for my sweet peas etc. But farmer says that if its dug over in the winter the structure tends to turn to sludge.
So my questions is shall i dig it over and weed it (all i can see is annuals but there may be some nasty perrenials lurking unnoticed underneath) and then put my manure on (but risk turning the plot to sludge)
Or do i just put the manure on top and risk giving some unseen weeds a big feed?
Anybody have any suggestions?
Afraid I'm voting for putting the manure ontop, ignore digging, and mulch-everything-a-go-go. Enough manure/mulch will stop weed growth due to lack of light.
Supersprout will be along soon... ;D
mmm, a much argued question here on A4A.... I always say dig it - that way you can be sure to get out weeds like bindweed and couch grass etc... I also think it helps the soil structure to dig it. I dont mind the effort being relativly young and fit ;D either... Dug this over the last two weekends.
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d57/keef30/DSC00338.jpg)
I always thought best to dig too Keef. I guess it depends what you've got growing on there. If it's mostly earth with some weeds on top I guess you could mulch over it all. I go with Alan Titch, when you get a new overgrown bit of earth, weed, dig, then mulch it up! Nice work by the way, that's what mine is beginning to look like now the evil couch grass is going- Yay! ;)
Even though I don't dig, I do love to see pics like keefs ;) :D
I have well dug and weeded half of mine but am going to mulch the rest. It will be interesting to see which turns out better! I went down yesterday to take some scraps for the heap and drove past a house that had put out loads of cardboard from a new kitchen out for the recycling van - so I recycled it for them! I put newspaper down then the cardboard and weighed it down with bricks! I have a promise of some horse muck soo - so will load that on top and eventally use it to grow my pumpkins, squashes and courgettes! - planting through holes made in the mulch.
Hopefully the couch grass will give up before I do!
Louise
thanks for your comments
looking with envy at your lovely dug over beds
I think i will dig it , becuase then at least i know whats down there.
If it is light free draining soil and easy annual weeds then I would leave clearing it for a month or 2 to save leaching from the rains.
Or I would dig/mulch and then cover up with membrane etc.
The old rule is to dig heavy soils and expose to the winter, dig lighter soils in the spring.
I'm a digger but thats only because I need the excercise!
I'll pass on this one ;)
Two Manic diggers here, heavy clay soil....
;D
I also profess to be a digger
Dig but Sprout is turning me got some straw down. ;D ;D ;D
Dug ground always looks so much more neat and tidy than mulched... it appeals to my obsessive compulsive side :)
Quote from: LauraB on January 23, 2007, 17:45:00
Dug ground always looks so much more neat and tidy than mulched... it appeals to my obsessive compulsive side :)
I can relate to that ;D
Quote from: LauraB on January 23, 2007, 17:45:00
Dug ground always looks so much more neat and tidy than mulched... it appeals to my obsessive compulsive side :)
Me too!
Quote from: LauraB on January 23, 2007, 17:45:00
Dug ground always looks so much more neat and tidy than mulched... it appeals to my obsessive compulsive side :)
Oooh noo laura, noo!
No mulch? Cover my eyes!
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/smilies/mixed-smiley-023.gif)
There you go, you three have gone and upset Sprout now. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: supersprout on January 23, 2007, 19:12:31
Quote from: LauraB on January 23, 2007, 17:45:00
Dug ground always looks so much more neat and tidy than mulched... it appeals to my obsessive compulsive side :)
Oooh noo laura, noo!
No mulch? Cover my eyes!
(http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/supersprout/smilies/mixed-smiley-023.gif)
There there sprout. You only feel bad because your dark side knows we speak the truth ;D
I think there are good ideas with mulches and stuff to save on digging.
HOWEVER...I have a Dad who is a workaholic, and wants to dig my new allotment for me. He's already done a quarter of it this weekend!
So, I'm going with the 'dig' method. ;D ;D ;D
cj
;D ;D ;D
I really love digging, could watch it all day ;)
Yeah, come on sprout, you know it makes sense ... :P
I dig then I mulch & at the moment I am halfway through removing a 10'x6'x18" slab of concrete from my garden which will be replaced with a lasgne bed directly on the clay subsoil I am left with.
I, too, like digging and find it good exercise and it also appeals to my obsessive compulsive side (I have a vision of an allotment worthy of a Victorian kitchen garden status, but will I ever manage to achieve it...?!)
However, my back has good weeks and bad weeks and time is carefully managed so in order to keep some kind of control on the weed population (and actually try to grow stuff!) I have gone/am going over to mulch with the hope that I stay sane and able to remain upright!
I dig where necessary (ie where perennial nasties have a good hold), but nowhere else. Apart from that I just mulch like mad, and dig out individual weeds as they surface. It takes a while, but I'm getting more and more of the plot free from weeds, and I'm saving myself ever more work.
I'm of the same mind as Robert...mulch and let the worms do the rest ;D
Quote from: louise stella on January 23, 2007, 12:17:04
Hopefully the couch grass will give up before I do!
I had the same hopes in the fall. The couch thrives. In both sections of our plot... without light under a tarp for months or after being smothered in cardboard with mulch on top for months, and just about any other place it manages to live on our plot except where we dug it out by hand.
Quite evil stuff, couch.
But we haven't given up!
I don't dig with spades or forks unless I'm digging spuds up. Can't, not since I did my back in digging.
But what I do is go over the beds (raised, again helps the poor old back) each season with a hand fork, and weed everything out, forking over the top 4-5 inches as I go.
Looks like the nicely dug plots, hardly any effort, deep structure preserved.
Suits me!
moonbells
If you dig couch carefully, at least once a year, the quantity goes steadily down until you end up digging out individual roots. Keep it up and you win in the end; it's nothing like as bad as ground elder.
Thanks for your replies guys!
I think the jury is out on digging v mulching!
All ground should be mulched to improve soil structure etc and to retain moisture - which is very important down here in the South East (Kent).
There are several reasons why I haven't dug the second half as well as the first! One is the weather is now against me (I only got the plot in October) and another is the fact that my back is hurting. I was in a car crash about 12 years ago and damaged my sacro iliac joint (base of spine/pelvis) and I don't want to aggravate it further and not be able to actually tend the plot this year!
I am a great believer in improving soil structure - if the soil is improved the worms will be more active and the structure will be improved - digging breaks down this structure and destroys worms. On the other hand digging exposes pests to birds and the cold etc. So in future years I will just turn the top few inches between crops to let the birds do their stuff.
I just got myself another part time job, working in the Chatham Dockyard as a guide and there is a small brewery there so I am going to go and ask if I can have some spent hops - they make a great mulch! I also have a friend who has promised me at least two bags of horse muck every sunday!!
But there is no right or wrong way - just preference!
Louise
I like Caroline's method, the ol dads going to dig it for me method. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Green with envy @ spent hops and poo! ;D
Quote from: louise stella on January 24, 2007, 14:39:44
I am a great believer in improving soil structure - if the soil is improved the worms will be more active and the structure will be improved - digging breaks down this structure and destroys worms.
The jury might be back in 2009! ::)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2006/12/02/gdig02.xml
Oooo I reckon some of the old guys on my site should read that - I can hear them tutting as I put down my mulch! Somehow not digging all the time makes you a lesser gardener in their eyes!
Louise
Hey Supersprout - do you grow "no-dig" spuds by any chance? I know the theory but would like to hear how it works in practice!
Louise
Hi louise stella, yes. So far I've only ever grown 'no dig' spuds under black plastic to help clear the plots (I took them on in May 04 and Dec 05). Cleared the ground, covered in spent hops, put the potatoes in and covered with black plastic. I've never grown spuds in pots, as I don't want to be a slave to the watering can!
With 'clean' beds to plant into this year, I'll be covering no-dig spuds with organic mulch instead of black plastic, something like this:
http://www.organicgardening.org.uk/organicgardening/nd_spuds.php
Rocket, Swift, Amandine and Desiree gave reasonable crops over two years - Amandine did exceptionally well, :) It's *pure magic* to tweak away the plastic and furtle up generous clusters of tubers (especially when the diggers are watching - timing is everything! ;)) My impression is of slightly lower yields compared with the traditional method (which I've done for years on other plots). But you don't have to water, weed or earth up, so it's a small penalty. Be prepared for meeces to hunker down under the plastic over winter and take a few bites out of the biggest tubers >:( I didn't have problems with e.g. eelworm or slugs.
When the plants matured, they seemed 'leggy'. It might be the varieties? but I missed being able to mulch them up to cover the stems as they grew. That shouldn't be a problem with the mulching method this year.
One minor niggle. If you sow your spuds under black plastic, in theory you can cut growing holes when the shoots push through. I found that the shoots didn't always push hard enough to show where the spuds were - I had to hunt for stray shoots that were running along under the black plastic instead of poking out. And if you cut holes and plant through them, there's no guarantee that the spud shoots will come up where you planted the spuds! That shouldn't be a problem with no dig using mulch. Let's See What Happens.
we've done the no dig spuds as well, dig a hole with a bulb planter, put the spud in, cover with soil, as it grows, cover with anything, compost, soil, rotted grass clippings, then newspaper collars, with fresh grass clippings on top,
we got a good crop but that was 3 years ago, haven't tried it in these new beds ...yet ;D
thanks for the spud tips!
So
I have weeded the beds, but the couch and all it's friends will no doubt return - so do you think I should plant the spuds under a membrane - or just mulch heavily as they grow?
Louise
Quote from: Baccy Man on January 24, 2007, 02:06:57
I dig then I mulch & at the moment I am halfway through removing a 10'x6'x18" slab of concrete from my garden which will be replaced with a lasgne bed directly on the clay subsoil I am left with.
I smashed the same thing up 2 weeks ago. Still got half the concrete to get to the tip. Hope I can this weekend. Missus is on my case as it from the greenhouse in our garden not the one in the lottie.....