Gardening by Degrees

A biological garden is never static for long.  Crops and cycles of weather ebb and flow in the same space throughout the year.  Remember my dry bean rows this summer?

August 24, 2011

September 24, 2011

Senescence has set in, and that’s a good thing if you’re wanting to harvest dry beans in the rainy Pacific Northwet, uh, I mean Pacific Northwest.

Three weeks ago, a friend was here and helped me harvest my beans.   At first I was going to pick just the dry pods, but with rain forecast by evening and for the next week, I decided to pull all the plants instead and let them dry down in the barn.  In the grand scheme of things this really was a better idea, since I wanted to plant the garlic where the bean rows were and I needed to prep the soil for fall planting.

September 29, 2011.

After removing all the beans, I needed to weed the area and get it ready for some cover crop and soil amendments.  As you can see from my handful of soil above, in some gardening circles I am known as Flirts with Clods, I’m pushing the soil envelope here a bit, by diving in and cultivating this spot after those rains.  Too wet for equipment, and the area is too small (IMHO)to drag out the tractor and put the tiller on, in the same time I can just hoe it and be done, and not compact the soil.

Not too bad, give a girl a hoe and rake and she goes to town on those weeds.

Getting weeds in the thread stage is pretty important for mining that seed bank out.  It’s easy and the weeds are easily killed while they are infants.  My soil is loose and friable, so hoeing is not a hardship, I am just casually stirring the soil to expose these newly germinated weeds.  If you’re hacking away at your garden with any kind of tool, you need more organic matter, not a bigger hoe or more horse power.  Think cover crops, compost, and properly timed tillage.  Tilling too soon with wet soil in the spring while chomping at the bit, can set you up for a summer of drudgery and hard work.  Tread lightly in every stage…

September 30, 2011

After hoeing and leaving the weeds to wither in the sun for a day, I came back and raked the larger debris to the sides to prepare for broadcasting my partial cover crop.

Again, more simple tools for a simple, but important job.  A short, easy to carry and reach into, 3 ½ gallon bucket for seeds, a rake, and I’m ready to sow my cover crop.

I hand broadcast the seed, and rake the soil.  Most seeds get covered, and the few that are exposed sprout anyway and send down their tap-root.  With cool fall weather it’s pretty easy to get a good stand established.

October 10, 2011.

The cover crop is well established in the space where I don’t want to plant garlic, and the row for the garlic is clean and awaiting maybe another raking for weeding, then amending and planting the garlic.  All I need now is a few dry days in a row…and the first of crop of 2012 will be planted!

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