Still a work in progress, but I am slowly cleaning up and reclaiming our neglected raised beds. So far I have planted tomato, corn, squash, peppers, 3 varieties of potato, 2 beets, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley and some strawberries that probably won't turn out.
Questions at this point:
1) Is it a bad idea to have a compost pile right next to the beds that I am gardening? During the clean out, I realized one of the beds was broken, and so while amending the soil in the other beds, I cannibalized some of the soil in that bed to fill the others. I then started raking the excess leaf litter into that broken bed, and planned to let it turn to compost. I will add coffee grounds, and other organic material as the season progresses.
2) The walkways in the garden are in bad shape. The previous owner laid down landscape fabric that is torn up and has weeds and grass growing through. I ripped some of it out, but it is going to be a huge pain in the butt to do all of it. Should I just lay down more brown paper and smother it and cover that with mulch? How about pea gravel?
by SaladJarDude
2 Comments
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In-bed compost pile is a good way to accelerate cold composting; direct access for earthworms and the like. I did this on one of my raised beds because it was just gonna be another cubic yard of soil i’d have to get.
That landscape fabric is going to be the bane of your existence until you ~~cast it into the fires of Mordor~~ get rid of it. There is nothing you can do to stop weed seeds from blowing in on the wind and the best course of action is to just rake the leaves and spend enough time there to make foot paths. The only place I use pea gravel is the floor of my greenhouse to help as a heat sink. Good luck with that one 🙂
The farthest square-ish shaped bed looks like it’d be a pain to reach the middle of. That’d be a whole project in itself but i’d consider splitting that with the furthest portions being added to the fence side in the fall.