Tag: Weeds

Autumn Dos and Don’ts for Healthier Plants and Fewer Weeds Next Spring

Do

Don’t

Lawns

 

Leave the leaves (after chopping up with leaf mulcher or lawn mower)

Kick ‘em to the curb

Aerate and over-seed

Fertilize (particularly near trees)

Switch lawn to gardens

 

 

Garden Beds

 

Remove weeds and invasive plants

Let yourself be hypnotized by ‘pretty’ invasives

Remove any leaves with leaf spot

Allow the fungi to remain on the ground

Pull and dig weeds from the root

Yank and drop

Cover and smother

Weed whack and walk away

Solarize the soil to kill rampant diseases like blight on tomatoes

 

Resist the urge

Rototill weeds (Particularly with root systems like thistles, goutweed, etc.)

Cut back herbaceous perennials after they fade (less work)

Cut back while plants are still green (more work)

Add compost and/or leaf mulch

Pile up leaves around shrub stems and perennial crowns

Do a soil test and amend the soil

 

Plant garlic

 

Plant bulbs including tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths

 

Install new trees and shrubs

 

 

 
  • DO plant bulbs like tulips…
  • …and garlic

(Photos by Sherrilyn Billger) 

DO

DON’T

Soggy Soils

 

Plant trees

·      A mature evergreen intercepts more than 4,000 gallons per year

·      Red oaks can remove 92 feet of water per hour

·      Maples remove 8 feet per hour, willows remove 10

Add more grass

·      A study in NC found that switching from forest to suburban turf reduced the soil infiltration rate from 12.4 in/hr to 4.4 in/hr

·      That means trees are three times faster getting excess water out of the soil

Consider swales

 

Aerate your lawn

Compress the soil by driving over it, particularly when it’s wet

Add compost

Turn up your nose at mushroom soil

 

 

Lasagna Garden

 

To transform grassy areas into garden beds, don’t bother weeding, digging, or tilling. Ingredients: cardboard and/or newspaper, compostable materials (plant material, fallen leaves, egg shells, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds), compost and/or dirt

1.    Place cardboard or layers of newspaper on the ground and water

2.    Add a layer of compostable materials

3.    Add a smaller layer of compost or dirt

4.    Rinse and repeat steps #2 and #3 until your lasagna is at least 6” tall

5.    Do nothing for months and months

6.    Check your lasagna in April or May and marvel at the dead grass at the bottom of the ‘pan’

7.    Till if you really feel like it, to mix your lasagna into the soil below

8.    Remove any remaining bits of cardboard (toss ‘em in your compost pile)

9.    Add plants and seeds to your new garden bed

 

 

Miscellaneous Do’s

 

Remove vines growing on tree trunks

Remove dead, dying, and diseased trees, limbs

Remove invasive trees, shrubs, and vines

Consult with a certified arborist

 

In the Comfort of Your Warm House

 

Year in Review

·      What were your greatest victories?

·      What were you biggest challenges?

Start planning your next growing season. Try something new!
  • DO remove harmful vines
  • Do add compost to soggy soils or use in lasagna gardening

Gardener’s to do list for late spring

This post originally appeared in the Penn State Extension Master Gardener’s blog.

All vegetable gardeners want a successful harvest, and I’ve found that no time is more pivotal than the first month or so after planting. This is when our seedlings take root, and establish a strong foundation for future growth. I spend more time in my garden in spring than any other time of year, and it always pays off. Here’s a list of late spring tasks that will benefit your organic vegetable crops.

Monarch caterpillar feeding on milkweed leaf

1. Attract Pollinators

Many of our vegetable plants already attract bees and butterflies, but we can supplement these with flowers like Echinacea, bee balm (Monarda), zinnias, yarrow, and sunflowers, among others.  I like to grow common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) to attract Monarch butterflies, and bronze fennel to attract Swallowtails. It’s also a good idea to include a shallow water source for the pollinators. You’ll find some more tips in my printable PDF. And if you’re committed to attracting pollinators, you could get your garden certified.

2. Protect your vegetables from critters

I live in central city Philadelphia, but my vegetable garden lives in rural Berks county (zone 6b). I see no deer or groundhogs in my Philly neighborhood, but they certainly frequent the neighborhood around my garden. The local rabbits are quite voracious as well. So I’ve installed simple 8-foot long 2×4 posts (not pressure-treated) and plastic deer fencing. I added some short galvanized wire fencing to keep the rabbits and groundhogs from gnawing through the deer fence. I’ll have to keep an eye on my fence throughout the growing season, because those critters are crafty, and just might find/dig/gnaw a way through or around my fence. Vigilance is key.

munched tomato
Somebody got to my tomato before I did.

3. Weed and mulch

As they establish themselves, our vegetable plants compete with weeds for sun and water and soil nutrients. My garden is host to a seemingly endless army of thistles and wild onions. Until my vegetables are large enough to shade competitors, I need to weed frequently. I also use mulch to keep the soil moist and discourage weeds. Some gardeners use inorganic materials, but I prefer organic mulch. It doesn’t keep every weed out, but it will slowly decompose and further nourish my soil.

You might consider red plastic mulch for your tomatoes. Penn State scientists found that red mulch increased tomato harvest by 10 percent on average.  To keep the weeds at bay and encourage a better tomato harvest, staple red mulch to black mulch  and lay it on the ground red side up. The easiest time to do this is before you plant your seedlings, but you could also lay it after planting, and create cut-outs for your tomatoes to poke through.

4. Erect plant supports

If you haven’t yet done so, now is a great time to install plant supports.  Putting off this task will leave you wrestling with large plants, and you’ll risk breaking the stems and damaging the roots. Supports are particularly important for peas, pole beans, and tomatoes. I also like to provide supports for my cucumbers, and occasionally for my pepper plants. Garden supply stores offer a wide variety of stakes, teepees, and cages, but you can also make your own. In order to keep your garden chemical-free with natural materials, choose bamboo, cedar, cypress, and jute twine. I use jute twine throughout my garden, because I can toss it in my compost pile in the fall.

Cucumber seedlings starting to climb

5. Make frequent inspections

Organic vegetable gardening is actually really easy. The biggest time commitment comes in the spring, but the summer and fall payoff is truly worth it. Take a little extra time now to nurture the plants and help them set a strong foundation. The absolute best thing you can do for your garden now and throughout the growing season is to walk around and look at the plants. How are they doing? Are they getting enough sun and water? Do you see any evidence of disease or insect damage? Catch it early, and your plants are likely to recover.