Your hard work paid off, these look really nice! I have a U shaped garden and used stone pavers to make the path in the middle, but the grass is still growing in between. Maybe I’ll plan to switch to mulch.
Thanks! For either mulch or pavers you're going to have some level of maintenance. My personal take is that the maintenance for mulch is more frequent, but less intensive, than pavers. Both will benefit from a boarder to keep roots out.
I'm feeling a little called out right now. I have a similarly chicken proof raised bed area. The grass grows taller than the plants and I have to get in and mow it. One day I found some 1x2 ft tiles on a curb. I have to put those down to kind of help control the grass but it's not helping. I feel like I need to gravel the whole area because we get so much water.
This fence has been in place for at least four years, so this has been a very long time coming. I went with mulch because getting rid of rocks is really annoying should we want to change the area again in 5-10 years.
Thanks! I don't know about professional, but it should be pretty practical.
I thought about stone, but it's too permanent. We have crushed marble (that white stuff) in some of our flower beds from the previous owner and it's a pain. If we wanted to get rid of it we would have to pay someone to take it away.
We might expand for more beds once our kids outgrow their play structure. We have four 4x8 beds and grow vertically, so we have a decent amount of space. This year we have beans, peas, cucumber, cantaloupe, trombetta, pie pumpkins, shallots, onions, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and lufa for fun.
Label every seedling. Every single one. I learned the hard way when I accidentally planted mint in my flower garden that completely took over and took many attempts to get rid of.
Ive never heard of rattlesnake beans, looks fun! I mostly have just been putting perennial fruits in the ground, I've got raspberries, blueberries, Saskatoons, and elderberries. I might start some annuals next year
Well it's hard to say, the early birds got the saskatoons and I only got 2 (two!). They're blueberry like, maybe a bit less tart and a bit creamier(?). Definitely looking forward to meet years crop!
My mom used to do that cookie sheet technique with our raspberries. They’d freeze on the cookie sheet then she could scrape them into bags and put those in the freezer.
Mind if I ask why you’ve got the leaves on the berries still? Does it preserve them better?
I only leave them on because I’m too lazy to take them off. I add them to my smoothies like that and the leaves don’t seem to affect the taste at all so what the heck they can just stay on it’s fine
Makes sense. Anything that can be digested without issue probably should be eaten honestly. The more diversity in diet the better.
What do you mix with them for a smoothie?
I did a business for a short period that was smoothie subscriptions.
My smoothie recipe was kale, watermelon, bananas, carrots, and strawberries. My customers could get either one or two liters of that delivered to their office fridge daily.
Never really got off the ground, but it was fun for a while.
in that case, be careful about your sources. You wouldn't want to introduce pesticides, herbicides, fungicides you try to avoid ( if that's what you do), through straws from a poison farm
i would have kept those straw beds 3, 4 times thicker
Honestly, I wanted to go with hemp, but it was all online order and wouldn’t have gotten here fast enough. Which is strange with them being local, I can’t just drive there.Hempalta
I agree, they recommend 2” thick, but I’m worried about the seedlings making it through. The radish tops would barely crest the top by harvest time?
It's physiological leaf roll. Its a reaction to environmental stressors, likely the heat. It causes no damage to the plant and doesn't reduce the yield.
Thanks. I have a lovely Burmese sour that has been doing this as a result of a recent heatwave. The fruit still looks good but I was worried about it until I read this.
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