My gardens sit on land that is either “shallow to bedrock” or muck and clay. After years of trial and error I have adopted a basic strategy that changes the existing clay and gravel into good soil for my ornamental beds and vegetable garden. You’ve heard it before: keep adding organic material. Lots of it. Most of my beds are raised. This prevents being waterlogged in the spring and keeps every bit of the precious soil I’ve made in the bed. Weeding the vegetables is more satisfying because the edges of the bed outline the weeded area when I’ve finished.
When I have time I begin a new bed by laying down wet cardboard or 8 to 10 layers of wet newspaper. I build the bed by adding organic material as it becomes available until the bed is two and one-half to three feet high. Dispose of weeds going to seed, diseased plants, branches, and kitchen waste elsewhere. I bury kitchen waste seven or eight inches deep in an existing bed where the worms eat it in about three weeks. From time to time I add some soil and a dusting of lime to the bed, and use manure, seaweed, spoiled hay, or other material when I can get it. Thinly spread grass clippings on the bed. Otherwise they tend to mat and smell. I don’t have time to fuss with carbon-nitrogen ratios. Because of the predominance of clay and ledge on our property I don’t have a lot of soil to spread on the bed. I add what I can because the microbes and worms help break things down. In mid-fall I cover the bed with a tarp to keep nutrients from leaching out when it rains. I leave it in place for weed control until it’s warm enough to plant. Last spring I added a bucket or two of soil wherever I wanted to plant seedlings. I experimented with corn and winter squash. I covered the rest of the bed with spoiled hay and added more as needed to cover bare spots. The plants grew well, there were no weeds, and we had good crops of corn and squash. I pulled the corn stalks to decorate the garden, very coarsely chopped the squash vines right where they were, added more spoiled hay, and put on the tarp This spring I’m hoping the bed will have matured to the point that I can plant peas and the seeds won’t be lost. It will be several years before I can plant tiny seeds such as lettuce and carrots. I just sent a soil sample to be tested and will be adding nutrients as recommended.
I follow a similar routine in perennial beds. I do add enough soil and organic material to fill the bed and plant it immediately. As soon as plants are in the ground I add about one inch of pine-spruce bark mulch keeping the mulch from touching the crown or stems. From then on I add mulch as needed to keep the soil covered. After the first two or three years, and as long as the bed is not disturbed, the number of weeds is negligible. Recently I returned to beds that have had no attention for three to four years. Although the mulch was gone there were few weeds. Yes, plants had grown larger and shaded out more weeds, but I had kept that area well weeded and mulched for five to seven years prior to my neglect. Because the soil had not been disturbed the thousands of weed seeds lying dormant were either too deep to sprout to the surface or hadn’t gotten the light necessary for sprouting.
I have mulched my perennials and vegetables for years. Now I am experimenting with no till gardening, making the size furrow the seeds need, and mulching. I expect it will take a while for the beds to settle down from the days when I used my tiller and hoe quite liberally.
Now, about slugs and snails… Yes, I have them. They destroyed all of my vegetables in 2007, many in 2008, and a few in 2009. The snakes that live in my garden took care of the slugs until the snails appeared in 2007. Now, in 2010, the snakes are still here, but they are not eating slugs in the quantities that they used to. I have used beer, crushed eggshells, coffee grounds, Gerry Baker’s amazing formulas, and other methods, now forgotten, to deter slugs and snails. Finally, in 2008, I tried Sluggo. It works, and it is not harmful to pets.
Many of you will recognize the strategies I use as sheet composting or “lasagna gardening.” Others may remember Ruth Stout’s 1961 book, “Gardening Without Work” in which she promises, “no plowing, no hoeing, no cultivating, no weeding, no watering, no spraying.”
I’ll keep you posted.
Karen Curtis ~ GCFM Horticulture Zone 5 Chairman
To contact GCFM Horticulture Zone 5 Chairman email hort5@mainegardenclubs.org