YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
Greengirl: Splendor in the straw
Posted on June 6th, 2005 – 1:41 PMBy Jaime Chismar
When making a raised bed, many organic gardening books recommend digging up the sod and reusing it to fix dead patches in the lawn. This seemed like a great idea, but the sod had other plans.
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Sod does not roll up clean and smooth like new carpet. It is alive, lumpy and quite determined to stay exactly where it was seeded. Our dull shovels were no match for the rocks, tree roots, and nest of orange centipedes. After a half hour of sweating and swearing, Brian and I suddenly cared more about saving our backs than saving our scraggly patch of grass. Thirty bucks can rent you a fine rototiller. |
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While Brian tilled, I found this buried under the grass. Can any Hot Wheels fans identify this object d’art from 1969?
Thanks for the tip, Underblog. This Peeping Bomb clip-on pin belongs to the the Hot Wheels redline collection. Mattel produced these cars between 1968 and 1972. The name “redline” comes from the red stripe around the tires. What surprises have you unearthed from your topsoil? Send a snapshot to jchismar@startribune.com for an online gallery. |
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Because we have a full compost bin, we decided to use free compost instead of buying peat moss to lighten the soil. Though many gardeners recommended using peat moss, an environmentalist cautioned me against it. She claimed it was a non-renewable resource that took hundreds of years to re-establish. After a quick Google search, I learned the differences between a peat bog and Canadian sphagnum peat moss. My friend was half right – peat bogs do take hundreds of years to regenerate, but peat moss can re-establish itself rather quickly. (You can learn more about Canada’s peatlands and preservation policies here.) |
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A beginner’s big mistake: Mulch is not the same as compost. Mulch, like grass clippings, wood chips or straw, goes on top of the soil after you plant to preserve moisture and cut down weeds. I got the two confused and tried to till the straw into the soil. Wrong! Tilling straw is like twirling spaghetti with a fork. Quick and tight, the straw wound around the blades and choked the machine. |
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We cut a 50-foot soaker hose into three pieces and customized a watering system for each bed. Hopefully, this will save us time lugging hoses around the backyard and a little money on our water bill. Has anyone actually buried a soaker hose in the garden? Does it make a difference? |
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Ta–da! Three 4×8 raised beds and two unused bales of hay. Let the planting begin!
PS: Is it too late for carrots? |
23 Responses to "Greengirl: Splendor in the straw"
Wow! Impressive! And now let’s hope that those tender little plants don’t get drowned in a rainstorm or eaten/dug up/stolen by bugs, racoons, slugs, rabbits (they’ve dug up all my tulip bulbs, and I found a nest of new baby bunnies snoozing in a hole their mom had dug under my perennial asters last year), and deer (like to munch on new anything in suburbia). We even captured a pretty mean badger in a trap once. My neighbor finally resorted to an electric fence to keep out the midnight marauders. Before urban sprawl and the arrival of children, our two houses, alone on a rarely traveled road, shared a blissful rural existence and kept BB guns by the back door. We’d creep out to the garden like Elmer Fudd, after “wabbits.” It’s amazing how much wildlife you can find in the city!
Carrots.
Not too late. (I think)
Make a funnel shaped hole with a piece of straight steel.
Wide at the top (about 2 inches) narrow at the bottom about 8 inches deep. A tent stake will work.
Fill the hole with potting soil and plant the seeds. The funnel will form perfectly shaped carrots.
Kiddo you have no idea how good the harvest will taste. Nothing like anything you get from any store. Ask anyone who has ever planted broccoli.
btw tomatoes can be frozen. Just let them get good and red, wash them and put them in a plastic bag. To use run them under hot water, remove the skin and they are great in sauces.
There are two types of dead bone tired…one where your working for someone else to meet there goals and one where you’re working for yourself. I prefer the latter.
Take care and make sure to water.
patg
You might want to consider putting a small crushed rock border around the beds-putting plastic down first. I know it sounds like a pain, but if you don’t, next year you will learn the truth of the phrase: Grass only grows where you don’t want it. Besides, it gives the beds a nice, clean look.
Soaker hoses: I use 3 50 ft lengths in my flower gardens, and this year have the quick “disconnect” brass fittings in
order to hook up, water, then change position. My soaker
hoses are placed on top of the ground, tho. This gives the
green parts of the flowers moisture AND also moistens the
ground. (I set the microwave timer in order to know EXACTLY
how long I’ve been taxing our well, in the country where we
live, there is NO city water.) But this feature prevents my standing outside as mosquito bait to water, while the garden gets its needed moisture fix.
cyn smith
Greengirl says:
Cyn, do you have a magic formula for watering? I know garden plants need 1″- 1 1/2″ of water every week, but I don’t understand how this translates into watering time. Do I let the hoses run for a half hour? An hour? What happens if I forget to turn the hoses off on my way to work and accidentally over water the garden?
Will tilling the sod into the garden (as opposed to lifting it out) cause grass to grow in the garden? Or did you pulverize it?
Greengirl says:
First, we tilled light to rip through the sod. Once the sod was in manageable chunks, we removed them by hand. The beds were tilled a second time after we added our top soil, composted manure, and compost. While I was planting this weekend, I’d come across a few small pieces, but so far no grass. I guess I better keep my fingers crossed.
I always use soaker hoses in the first year of a perennial bed. Personally, I don’t bury them - I lay them on top of the soil (or mulch), then make “U” shaped stakes from wire and pin the hoses in place. That way, you can wind the hoses around to all the right spots and it stays in place for the whole season.
An irrigation system for a garden is the best way to go. Don’t bury it though. Otherwise, the tubing will shift around during the winter(frost) and when you till the garden next spring, it’ll get caught up in the tiller. Plus, it might also freeze and crack when the frost sets in.
I added a zone to my lawn sprinkler system and have 3.5′ piping with spray heads in each corner. With all 4 going at once, it’s like a nice summer rain(no need for it too much this year though!). That works like a charm.
If you want to use your garden hose, you can get an electric hose faucet controller for $25 to put on your hose spigot. It’ll let you set watering times/durations, multiple daily cycles, and when you want it on/off. Then you don’t have to babysit the garden hose or worry about over/under watering. I think you can get ‘em at places like Home Depot and Menards.
That appears to be a Hot Wheels clip on pin of the sort included in the large wheel-shaped carrying case for Hot Wheels. How do I know? I still have the lunchbox, thank you very much.
I read this blog with great interest. I am also thinking about starting a vegetable garden. I am hasitating because my site gets about 4-6 hours of sun at most, but many rabbits and squirrels, and you name it. Is it worth it? Where did you buy straw bales? I live at Eagan, and Minneapolis before, I have never see straw bales at the garden centers. Thanks.
Greengirl says:
Thanks for the questions, EaganGirl. I asked our Home & Garden editor, Connie Nelson about your sunlight situation. She suggested that you plant a few things in containers and move them as the sun moves around your yard. Most veggies need eight hours of sun per day, however, many kinds of flowers appreciate partial shade. I found my straw bales at Mother Earth Gardens in south Minneapolis. They’re really bulky and messy. I’m tempted to compost both bales and try the cocoa bean mulch. Maybe I’ll make little grass skirts for the cats first.
Just tilling the grass will not eliminate it. Normal lawn grass, Kentucky blue grass and fescue will die if buried under four or more inches of clean soil so tilling it up and covering it up with new soil eliminates it and preserves your existing topsoil. Quack grass will grow up through almost any depth of soil and tilling it just spreads it around.. It would have to be removed first or killed. An easy way to kill it without contaminating your soil is to cover it with black plastic for two or more weeks but this late in the season you will run out of gardening time.
Landscape fabric works well to control weeds and grass around tomatoes, peppers and other non-root vegetables. Using a thin layer of grass clippings or some of your “free compost
I use soaker hoses on all my flower beds and in my raised vegetable bed. I didn’t bury the hoses under the soil, but they are buried under several inches of mulch. I use quick-disconnect fittings on all my hoses, as well. A good idea is to to stick a small metal or wood stake next to the quick-disonnect fitting to identify where they are. I always forget where the hose ends are after the long winter months.
Remember when you are working on a motorized tool to remove the spark plug wire!
Does anyone know how to keep cats out of my garden? I hear lots of tips for squirrels and rabbits, but my neighbors pesky cats seem to think my radishes are a better place to “go” than their litter box. Then, they dig up the radishes to cover their tracks.
It is too late for this year but the next time you want to remove sod, a shovel works very well if it has been sharpened. Simply take a metal file and run it at a 45 degree angle over the top edge 15-20 times on each side of the point. It will cut thru the sod like butter and eliminate the need to rent a tiller.
And Bill’s advice about removing the spark plug — critical.
Wow, cool, just happened upon my niece and her gardening site. Glad the relatives are the last to know.
Great site! I am also a web designer that knows more about pixels than gardening. So I can TOTALLY relate.
I have one tomatoe plant, an oregano plant, 4 pepper plants and some mint that appeared on its own.
Does anyone know of other places to rent tillers other than HomeDepot?
I have to laugh about the tire. It just goes to prove that your garden is in a good spot. Somebody had a garden there and some kid was playing with their cars in the garden. You can figure out the rest, but what a treasure. You were connecting with your childhood and stumbled upon someone else’s.
To keep the cats out of your garden, try putting moth balls around the edge of the garden. Otherwise, a solution of water and cayenne sprayed around will keep those little critters from pooping in your garden.
Hello Green Daughter,
Did I tell you on Memorial Day I planted 6 different herbs in pots on the deck and bought an already containerized tomatoe plant that has close to 8 tiny tomatoes growing? It looks very promising as everything is still alive and thriving. Well, almost everything except the chives which Opal continues to chew down to the roots. (You remember Opal, she’s the cat, YOUR CAT which you refused to take with you when you left home.) I don’t know why you needed to get another cat when there was a purrfectly good cat to take with you. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, after chomping all the chives she then of course coughs them up (in the house) and has onion breath for the next day.
I also planted a few flowers in the pots in the ground in the front of the house. WARNING: Do not sit in the grass and plant unless you have very thick pants on because spiders, ticks, scorpions, etc. can chew through knit shorts. I developed a very nasty set of bites which made it difficult to sit down and required a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. Beware of the flesh-eating bugs in garden!
Loved the pics - only time I get to see you!
xxoo
Mummy
Regarding cats in your garden: try orange peels or any sort of citrus peel-cats hate it.
with regards to the wattering comments by Cyn Smith on June 7th, I have a trick for you. If you are watering from above with a sprinkler or such, mark a 1″ line on the inside of some margerine tubs or any plastic container and put them down in different areas in the garden and see how long you have to water before they gather 1″ of water. Sneeky huh?
I just love this BLOG. It is fun to read all of the comments. Keep weeding and watering and the rest will take care of itself! I agree that there’s no greater satisfaction that cooking and eating foods fresh from your own garden. Sometimes the green beans don’t even make it to the kitchen because we like to snack on them in the yard.
Have fun,
KJ
Soaker hoses: Don’t bury them in dirt because in Minnesota, you MUST take them up before a hard freeze. BUT you MUST bury them under your mulch because they will dry out and crack if you don’t. I myself HATE taking them up every year and last year I didn’t even put them in. My Brunerra in my shade garden didn’t like that at all and didn’t survive. 
So this year, I planted new ones and put down the soaker hoses.
All I’ll say about Mother Earth Gardens is that I spend way too much money there. Oh, and they are amazing wonderful women.
About discouraging cats in the garden… I’ve heard using cocoa bean hulls for mulch discourages cats. They probably don’t like stepping on it because it would get stuck between the pads on their feet.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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