Johnny Shea

paul wheaton wrote:Arthur,

I once owned a farm. 

And on that farm was a meadow.   A beautiful meadow of bracken fern.   With my farmer's hat on, I thought "This stuff isn't much good to me - what I really need is grazing ground.  I should come back here and mow this once every two weeks or so until it is gone."

So I guess I was thinking that mowing would beat bracken fern.  Was that silly?

So apparently the most effective way to control bracken is not to mow it but to bend the mature stems over . I saw an example of this practice that is being used to rengenerate land in the hills of Wales. A pony is used with a plough like instrument that is carried over the bracken. The stems are knocked so they cannot grow but the clever part is that new shoots are not stimulated . Over time this is getting great results

My best results have come from a mound of manure,  branches and miscellaneous organic materials. I think the key is good depth of medium and moisture retention. Irrigation during the growth cycle seems to make a big difference.  

Stacy Witscher wrote:In past years, I've planted pumpkins and winter squash in my raised bed garden. I don't think that's a good use of that area. This year I covered a fairly large area with cardboard and dumped about 50 - 50 gallon grow bags worth of soil over that area. That's going to be my main pumpkin/winter squash area. Honestly, I've been looking at companion plants that can partially shade the squash plants, our summer sun/heat is brutal. I'm thinking mainly ornamentals like cosmos, sunflowers and coreopsis. I will let you know how that goes.

I think the ideal would be to have something like fruit trees growing on a site with pumpkins underneath. This is my long term plan. I will allow the pumpkins to climb through the trees if they want.

You may have to weaken the weeds on a given site before planting pumpkins there again. Keep in mind every plant fits into the ecosystem and fulfills a certain role. So you may want to grow some pioneer trees in the area first to shade out and weaken the weed layer. Pumpkins seems to be designed to grow on the margins of sites and collect any over abundance of nutrients.  Growing them on compost of manure piles for example seems to work well. I don't weed my Pumpkins much but instead plant them into sites where land has been recently cleared etc. Using grass clippings as mulch in-between plants can also smoother weeds though that can create a slippy carpet of rotten grass. Last idea I would suggest is to save your own pumpkin  seeds from plants that grew on your site. They will adapt gradually to your garden.

Thanks for your reply. Im still figuring out how to incorporate Hugelkultur into my garden. I have some extra  topsoil in a pile I could use. But actually I believe this is the only weakness of hugelkultur, I.e. you need some extra topsoil ( though in reality there is probably lots available if you source it off site)
I am currently playing with the idea of using manure and compost to cover wood as I have them in plentiful supply.  

Nancy Reading wrote:Pretty similar! - your comfrey will love the nutrients from your compost bin. I'm not sure whether I'll ever 'turn out' the inside of my comfrey circle and use the compost elswhere, it's more a way of disposing of green waste and converting weeds to safe mulch. Too many of my weeds will carry on groing if I just chop and drop, or hoe them off. The only risk I see with yours is if the comfrey roots invade your compost you could get some bits broken off and growing in there. I've got nettles around my compost bin and they're invading it! Nettles also love the extra nutrients from the maturing compost.

I guess we are both converting garden  waste into comfrey leaves 😃. Im using my comfrey leaves to make comfrey tea which im using to feed my pumpkins. Interesting point you raise about the comfrey roots invading the compost.  Honestly you've got me wondering now could I harvest comfrey roots for some purpose 🤔

I couldn't resist buying a baby comfrey plant last spring from a garden centre. When home I wondered where to plant it. I ended up planting it at the foot of a composting pile I have in my garden on open soil. So now as the decomposing pile of mixed garden waste breaks down and exudes goodness my comfrey is waiting below to absorb and accumulated greedily. Similar to your idea perhaps?

Whats wrong with filling a trench? I have built some nice lazy beds with soil and manure but now im thinking of turning them into hugel beds. Should I just place wood on top of current raised bed and cover with soil. My main goal is to increase moisture retention. This summer has been hot and dry here.

Ants definitely deserve to be respected. They embody strenght and resliance. Personally I have never observed ant damage in the gardens I work in although some have a high amount of ant activity.  It always amazes me sometimes when planting new ornamentals into ant heavy soil.  You would imagine the ants would attack the new addition into their territory but they don't.  One garden for example has a bed on a slope that if you disturb the soil by digging or weeding it is immediately covered in ants scrambling to investigate the disturbance.  I have never seen any damage to plants in this garden.  I have observed and it is just my opinion ants move in to sites where the space underground contains large open spaces or has been filled with material such as rubble creating a habitat for ants. So they definitely prefer certain environments and if they move in their presence is best accepted where possible.

David Eyk wrote:I bought a hybrid white strawberry—trade name "Hula berry", often called pineberry—off the clearance rack at Home Depot a decade ago. Three plants originally, and I'll never lack for it again. In zone 8b mediterranean climate, this thing is a honey badger: I've seen it choke out mint. It's a great ground cover, tolerates sun or shade, and with a regular strawberry somewhere in bee range to cross-pollinate, you get tasty white berries that look like they're from Mars and taste like pineapple.

Would you believe I bought same variety off a sale rack earlier this year. They are growing well so far looking forward to berries next year 😁