Hello, and welcome to my page!
It's the evening of the 30th of October as I write this post. I didn't really think that I would be writing any more garden related posts this year due to the weather, but Mother Nature gave us a bit of a respite from the early winter weather. The last 3 days have been above freezing during the day, and today got up into the mid 40s F. Because of that and some sunshine, the snow that we had gotten melted away and I was able to get back to raking the leaves in the back yard for the garden.
I loaded up another 3 totes worth of shredded leaves from the home garden pile and took them to the community garden yesterday to continue the mulching of my 2 plots. The ground has not frozen yet, so I was able to get the rest of the corn stalks pulled out of the garden plot without too much additional work.
Today turned out to be an even nicer day for this time of year, mid 40s and sunshine, so I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and bring the rototiller up to the community garden to till up a new plot, and I brought another 3 totes of shredded leaves with me again. I had thought about filling my 3 extra garbage cans to bring shredded leaves to the garden, but the totes are heavy enough that I use the wheelbarrow to haul them. The garbage cans full of wet shredded leaves would be unmanageable for me.
The garden plots are looking pretty good right now, with much of the plot covered with mulch. I have a pile of straw from the summer mulch, and a couple of piles of corn stalks that I need to shred.
The plot beyond these 2 plots is the one that I want to expand to next year, so I wanted to till it up this fall to get a head start on it. It hasn't been used for the past 3 years, so it's completely grown in by grass and weeds. I kept the grass cut on the plot over the summer to keep it manageable, and so that the weeds would not spread seeds.
This is a look at the plot from a different angle. In the foreground is the plot that I used for my pumpkin plants last summer. I cleaned it up a couple weeks ago. The new plot that I want is beyond that, it's just grass. The 3 plots surrounding it were all used last summer, including my plot with the corn stalks and fencing on it.
I ran the rototiller up to the plot to prepare for the work. Of course, I had to take a picture...
I started in the middle of the plot and worked my way out toward each side with overlapping passes. The grass had grown in pretty thick, so it was a bit of work breaking the ground. This is the plot after the first tilling.
For the second pass through the plot, I went from side to side to break up the humps that get missed in the first pass. The tiller's tines don't have complete overlapping coverage in the middle because of the drive shaft assembly, so it leaves ridges that have to be cross tilled. Since the plot is almost twice as long as it is wide, you have to turn the tiller a lot more, and that's where the real work is in tilling with a rear tine tiller.
I decided to cover as much of the tilled ground as I could with what I had available to try to stop the grass from growing back. I had already moved the plywood pieces from the pumpkin patch plot when I took this picture.
This is after I covered as much of the tilled ground as I could with what I had available at the garden. I figured that it would be best to try to stop the grass at the edges from growing back into the garden. The middle is easier to take care of later.
Since I had used the plywood from the pumpkin patch plot to cover the new plot, I decided to run the rototiller through that plot also, just to try to maintain that plot. I had tilled it up a couple of years ago to keep it from growing in and I wanted to do that again. I left the one corner covered, it won't grow any grass that way.
Here's a look across the 2 plots that I tilled up. This was taken before I covered up the dirt on the other plot.
After all the tilling was done, I dumped the 3 totes of shredded leaves onto the garden where I had previously dug the corn stalks out. I still need more mulch for the rest of the second plot, but it's getting closer to done now.
One last look at my plots, from the fence.
The coming week is supposed to have some decent weather, so I'm planning on hauling my chipper/shredder up to the garden to shred all the corn stalks and the pile of straw to add back into the garden. Once the garden is covered with mulch, I'll let it sit that way until next spring. At that point, I'll decide if I want to till it into the dirt, or just leave it in place and plant through it.
That's all I have for this post, thanks for stopping by to check it out!
My garden is not doing so well. Accept the pepper bushes now that it started to cool down.
I seem to have something eating things out of my garden.
I had a nice onion growing, and now it is gone. The whole thing.
Since i got a chicken wire cage around the whole thing, i am suspecting a two legged vermin.
This two legged vermin raided my stash in the fridge also.
It looks like i have lost all my garden this year.
I hope this new plot will grow well after the frost leaves.
What will you grow in the new patch?
Probably potatoes next year. I like to move the various food plants to different plots every year so the plant specific diseases don't build up in the soil. I'm not sure what I'll plant next year in the plot where the potatoes were this year, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. :-)
I do just that as much as I am able here. But I have only 2 gardens to move between, and they say a 3 year rotation is best...
Yeah, I'm kind of stuck with a 2 year rotation myself. That's why I wanted to get the 3rd garden plot.
Hi amberyooper,
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Good afternoon, or at least it is afternoon in my neck of the woods.
That is some long day you must have put in in order to get so much done. Rototilling is not easy, especially in virgin ground. We just finished mulching our gardens with leaves and hay, that in itself is a chore.
Throughout your post, you talk about the community garden. How exactly does that work?
The community garden, at least this one, is a plot of land owned by the city. They have the piece of property divided up into 16 separate plots that are 14 feet by 20 feet, with 5 feet between the plots on the ends and the sides. We pay a once a year fee of 25 dollars for the first plot, and 20 dollars each for additional plots. The city provides the water, so it seems like a pretty good deal. Each person is responsible for keeping the grass cut around their plot, and certain restrictions apply, such as no perennial plants. That is so if you give up your plot, the next person doesn't have to deal with stuff they might not want to grow.