I have been doing my winter gardening work in September this week.
On the north side (Northsider) of Algarve the new polytunnel I spread some stable bedding containing straw. This of course decided to grow and I have decided to use it for next years new potatoes 🥔 site.
Getting there! No cardboard under the dung. We will see if the vegetation like grass grows up and through it.
Hopefully the worms 🪱 will help take the fym down into the soil. Not that I see many earthworms these days.
If you are taking on a overgrown allotment or a uncultivated area of a garden I would recommend you try this method of no dig, Lasagna gardening. It saves the back breaking and laborious task of digging off the vegetation and composting it.
If I do get any vegetation growing through the dung I will cover it with ablack plastic tarpaulin and place old planks and bricks and stones to hold it down.
That's one Winter job nearly done. I just hope the rain takes a break today and I can finish covering the cardboard. Anyone else out there do Lasagna gardening?
I am not into lasagne gardening but we had a fine spaghetti crop this summer.
ReplyDeleteI have installed an helpful video about spaghetti harvesting YP. I might see if I can get some Ravioli seeds next year?
ReplyDeleteRavioli? Didn't he play for Middlesbrough?
DeleteRavanelli I think he was called YP. I thought Salford Van Hire was a Dutch striker.
DeleteI never tried lasagna gardening. I hope you do see plenty of earthworms this year.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good way of taming overgrown land River. Apparently the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides on farmland is said to be the main cause of the earthworms decline. I suppose this is also bad for the birds who feed on them?
DeleteWe have worms but also so many woodlice ... the compost bin is a seething mass of them whenever we lift the cover. Yuk.
ReplyDeleteWoodlice are very beneficial to compost heaps JayCee because they feed on the veg waste and help it decompose. I suppose you could give them a shower if you wanted or the compost is very dry?
ReplyDeleteIt is very moist at the moment Dave so no problem there.
DeleteSame here JayCee. I have been potting up shrub cuttings in my polytunnel office all morning.
ReplyDeleteV got worms for Father's Day (here in September). We have never done lasagne beds to that degree, although we did have wicking beds a few years ago. That was when we discovered that the earth took our beautiful soil down and threw up lots of rocks!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind some Tiger worms Jeanie. Lasagna gardening is a good way of getting rid of cardboard and old vegetation and covering it with fym or compost and in a few months planting potatoes tubers in it. The only labour is digging and borrowing the fym. We get more than enough moisture in Ireland not to need wicking beds. Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of such a thing but I have access to all the manure that I want. I will surely be giving it a try next fall.
ReplyDeleteI think Lasagna gardening was invented in America Debby. It's a good way of taming uncultivated land.
ReplyDeleteI like that term - lasagne gardening. I guess that's what I do except I use slices off a straw bale (which i have) instead of cardboard (of which i have nought), and seaweed (also generously available) along with the fym (which we have to beg for).... then we chuck on any compost we have made.... and hope. I call it strategically lazy gardening. There is a 'community' project starting up on a plot near ours. The woman running it is of a type. (I'll leave that to your imagination, but her lipstick said it all to me.) She thinks the people she will be teaching will sift the top 6 inches of the top soil before it all gets underway. I've got news for her. We are gardening in clay. From here until next May it will be the consistency of plasticine.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff Tiggers Mum. Great idea to use straw bale slices instead of cardboard. Lipstick allotment lady sounds quite a character. I once met a hippy like couple who rented a allotment next to me and they had a commode which went into their compost toilet which they were going to put on their vegetables. Raised beds are definitely the way to go on clay.
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