Gardening help

[chickndays]

Gardening help.
So we have a great garden plot which we had high hopes for, but due to a baby, was not given enough maintenence. It was tilled initially and mostly cleared but weeds and a lovely harvest of prairie grass resulted instead.

Looking for suggestive on how to prepare for spring next year. Midwest located.

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh gosh, that's about what ours looks like mostly every fall. Hubby rototills between the rows until he can't anymore, then we do nothing and have to go find our stuff lol.

This fall, he's talking about covering it all with black plastic. You and we would have to mow that first though, and hopefully bag it so we're not spreading more seeds.

Then in spring, rototiller it. We get 3-year-old horse or cow poop from neighbors and till that in, plus the year-old horse bedding pellets from the coop. I'm for a preemergent, then a month before planting, but he doesn't want to do that.

 

[nao57]

We use wood scrap. Its much healthier than black plastic. Also black plastic increases the heat. In some parts of the country you can get away with that, but if its hot and dry already you'd be better off using plain throw away wood scrap, wood chips.

I do like your idea of just tilling between the rows. You don't need to till everything really. You can also till in the fall tree leaves that fall; which means tilling now when those leaves are falling down. they'll decay and go into the soil. I also liked your comment about using horse or cow manure, that's healthily aged awhile.

You can put a lot of stuff back into the soil to replenish what its lost from previous garden years. Also healthily aged steer compost is wonderful to add; but usually we can't get as much as we like of it, so we put it down only where the plants are going to be. There's no point putting it down where you aren't going to have garden plants.

It looks like its good to be doing gardening. Especially this year and next year there's so much economic trouble. It can help reduce your bills a lot for food. And we need to be less dependent on stores and merchants now for what we need.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I'd suggest a no-dig, no-till method. Mow, put cardboard down and top with compost. Repeat the compost every fall. No tilling and less weeding.
https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/beginners-guide
https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/faqs

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Agreed. Mow and either cardboard compost it or cover it with fabric or plastic over the winter. Some people prefer the natural methods others just want what is easiest. Either way covering it over the winter will help kill and decompose what’s left of the weeds adding nutrients into the soil along with preventing the early spring weeds from sprouting so quickly.