Sawyer Rob
Super Member
If you "mulch" your garden in good, seeds don't matter! I do very little weeding in my gardens...
SR
SR
Horse Manure as fertilizer ?
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tcreeley
Elite Member
Naaaaaa, we leave the poop behind!! ha ha ha
I have two fair sized gardens and we do can/freeze for the winter months... The pict above is of my front garden, here's the back garden,
Both picts are from last year...
SR
Is that hay you are using for mulch? Just wondering. When we use hay for mulch we get slugs.
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
I use anything I can get, leaves, hay or anything else. In the pict., it's grass (horse hay) off a couple food plots I have, that I cut and move in loose. (not baled)
Best way I deal with what slugs I get, is to keep my plants off the ground. For instance, I cut all the lower limbs off my tomatoes...
Slugs can be taken care of with slug bait or any one of the many choices offered on line...
Once I started using a LOT of mulch, in a few years my bad bug problems pretty much all went away... I don't use any chem ferts and I don't use any sprays for weeds or bugs...
SR
Best way I deal with what slugs I get, is to keep my plants off the ground. For instance, I cut all the lower limbs off my tomatoes...
Slugs can be taken care of with slug bait or any one of the many choices offered on line...
Once I started using a LOT of mulch, in a few years my bad bug problems pretty much all went away... I don't use any chem ferts and I don't use any sprays for weeds or bugs...
SR
tcreeley
Elite Member
You don't plant potatoes do you? When you say your bugs are pretty much taken care of, I was wondering if you get potato bugs. I like the idea of mulching like you do!
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
My "back garden" pict., lower right, you can see all the potatoes I plant. Here's the size potatoes those plants produced, they are Yukon Golds,
I plant 10 hills,
Potatoes are VERY cheep around here, so I just plant 10 hills to get the YG's that I like so much. Why grow them when I can buy them like this?
As for potato bugs, I don't have any at all BUT, I believe that is because I use mulch, because I have heavier ground that the bugs don't winter well in, and I use good soil management with EXELLENT soil structure, also because I no longer plant a huge amount of potatoes, even though I use to...
I think it's a combination of all of those things with the heavy mulch playing a big part...
SR
I plant 10 hills,
Potatoes are VERY cheep around here, so I just plant 10 hills to get the YG's that I like so much. Why grow them when I can buy them like this?
As for potato bugs, I don't have any at all BUT, I believe that is because I use mulch, because I have heavier ground that the bugs don't winter well in, and I use good soil management with EXELLENT soil structure, also because I no longer plant a huge amount of potatoes, even though I use to...
I think it's a combination of all of those things with the heavy mulch playing a big part...
SR
Fawken
Platinum Member
I use horse manure with the flake shavings that gets cleaned out of the stalls. Spread it, till it in and repeat. Eventually (two or three seasons) it turns black clay into very good soil.
NativeSon
Veteran Member
If you wait to plant until after July 4 you generally won't have problems, and they will keep longer into the winter. I usually run out around the middle of April, saving the small potatoes to plant for an early crop, (which I do spray with Spinosad) then buy fresh seed potato for planting later.
It doesn't take them long to find your plants; mine is >1/2 mile from the next nearest garden. The first year I killed 4 beetles; the next year a few more, the third year they were fine on Sunday, I was sent away for the week and when I came back I had nothing but stems.
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kevin37b
Veteran Member
LOVE IT !
Fawken
Platinum Member
Yep. The soil here is very poor from decades of cotton.