47 this morning, cloudy. Warmed quickly to the upper 60's. Rain expected tonight.
Yet another trip to town today--it seems that although we try hard to consolidate trips because of the cost, we still have to go more often these days because it's Spring.
What does Spring have to do with it? In a word, gardens. We bought yet more mulch, bringing us up to 50 bags so far. We also needed some seeds, seed potatoes, onion sets, etc.
I wish I had a map to show you of our trip, though. First stop at the feed store for seeds, etc. As we left, we noticed a bag of laying mash in the back, which we had not bought. We were buying it at this store but changed to a different kind from a store with better hours, but apparently the boy working assumed we were buying the mash as usual. So back we went, because we didn't want anyone's pay to be docked for giving us the bag by mistake. I think, though, we got the poor kid in trouble because as we left for the second time, we heard the clerk bellowing the kid's name--which made us wish we'd just kept the feed instead. Ah well.
The next stop was the grocery store for milk, the Goodwill to see what we might find there, then to Wal-Mart for mulch and a few other things that confirmed that Wally World is indeed the hundred-dollar store.
After that we thought we'd check another favorite thrift, but they were closed for remodeling, so back into town, and thought we were heading for home when I remembered that we'd forgotten to buy the seed potatoes. Back to the feedstore, for the third time.
Finally we were homeward bound when I remembered that I needed to deposit some cash into my business account. Turn around, back to town and to the bank. Then at last we could actually go home.
When we got here, all I wanted to do was rest, but Larry is like the Energizer bunny. He's been unloading and has already spread almost all the mulch before I even knew he was doing it. Now it's time for late lunch, and then out to the garden to plant peas and maybe a few other things.
We put out some cabbage and onion sets yesterday. I put the cabbage in the part of the garden that is under mulch and will not be tilled. I'm curious to see how this will work. I've read about no-till gardening for years and have wanted to try it, so we shall see. My worry is that the soil is too wet and will rot the plants we put in there, but the only way to find out is to try. If they do actually rot, then we'll be pulling all that mulch and cardboard off, tilling, then re-mulching after planting. Fingers crossed that this won't be what happens.
Goodness gracious...driving around and around, and finally settled at home! Hope your plants in the mulch area works...I know my son and wife have done cardboard and mulch in gardens...but they've switched to hay bale gardening.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried any no till gardening, but I hope you have success with it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Michelle. We had some huge storms last night, so the soil is saturated. We shall see what happens with those cabbages. Fingers crossed.
DeleteThat was a lot of driving around but you got it done. :) When I was part of a community garden group, we didn't till at all. A master gardener referred to it as the lasagna method. You add layers to the top. It worked well for our small communty garden.
ReplyDeleteI have days like yours, when it seems like you screwed your head on backwards and you are driving round in circles as you remember things you have forgotten!
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine what you spend on mulch! I want to add some raised beds...we have very white soil here full of huge rocks. But filling them is so very expensive.
ReplyDeleteJenny, mulch is about 3.00 a bag here, so about 200.00-250, depending on what we need. It's well worth the expense to me, for what it does for the soil and the weed control. As for raised beds, I want some too, but the cost of the soil, etc to fill them has stopped me so far. We may add one this year. In the late 70's I did a kind of modified raised bed, actually more of a terraced garden. It was beautiful and bountiful, but weeding it was such an issue back then I had to give it up. It was pretty large, with beds about 40 feet long and 2 feet wide. My husband at the time wasn't into any kind of hand labor, so it was all on me to take care of it, and in those days mulch wasn't as easily available. It was beautiful though.
DeleteOur weather is so wacky these days, I'm afraid to do much gardening--planting anything is definitely out. I'm itching to get started, though. I'm going to try your method of mulching--I'm sick of seeing weeds take over my gardens!
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