Closing up shop ....

[Zapatay]

I am done with this years gardening.

Baby is due in two weeks so next season gardening is not an option for me.

So what are some things I can do (or recruit a brother to do for me) to prepare for next year?

Till tomato plants into the soil - will it decompose by next season? Cover with manure and straw and let it sit there until next year?

[gumbo2176]

If you till the tomato plants now, I'm sure they will be well broken down by spring-----especially where you live since your spring is several months away. What I like to do is take up plants and run over them with the lawnmower a few times to cut them up in small pieces, then put them into the compost pile.

Depending on how big your garden is, consider laying down some cardboard first then layering manure, hay, leaves, grass clippings etc. and it will not let weeds grow as it all composts for a great start to your spring garden.

Just yesterday my nephew got a kitchen full of new cabinets for his house we are remodeling. I took all the cardboard the cabinets came in and placed it in my garden between the rows to add to the cardboard boxes I added a few weeks ago. When I get the time, I'll go to City Park and grab a few pickup truckloads of leaves and put over the cardboard. Our weather in winter is mild enough I can garden year round and no babies for me in the next 2 weeks to keep me busy in other areas.

Congrats on the baby.

[Zapatay]

Cardboard w/o any ink?

Example: Neighbor has his cardboard box that use to carry a bigwheels for is kid. I also have a box left from our vaccuum cleaner we just purchased.

Those have brightly colored images on them - do you think i could use those?

[gumbo2176]

I've read several posts concerning ink on cardboard and the consensus seems to be it is safe because of the newer, non-toxic inks being used today.


Fortunately, the boxes I got from the store and from my nephews cabinet delivery are relatively ink free and what is there is only in black.

[engineeredgarden]

Test your soil. If ph needs to be adjusted, you want to do that right now. Other than that, tell a brother that you need a compost bin built, because the leaves will be falling from the trees very soon.

EG

[gixxerific]

DItto on the compost bin.

Some people don't compost their tomatoes due to fear of disease overwintering in the soil. Did your tom's have any problems like that this year?

Newspaper will work in the absence of cardboard. I save mine all year (and possibly steal the neighbors too they will just end up in the trash, not the recycling) for that purpose or to shred for the compost pile.

[tomf]

You can till every thing in, I did that last year and had tomato plants growing every where like weeds but they are easy to pull. You can use black plastic or cardboard to cover it. You could toss all you leaves and yard stuff on it the till it in latter. Plant a cover crop like clover to add nitrogen to the soil.

[applestar]

Good Luck!!!
Now, relax and breathe!

p.s. I (...well, WE ) used the Bradley Method for both my (... OUR) DDs.

[farmerlon]

Cardboard w/o any ink?

Example: Neighbor has his cardboard box that use to carry a bigwheels for is kid. I also have a box left from our vaccuum cleaner we just purchased.

Those have brightly colored images on them - do you think i could use those?

If the colored boxes are "slick", I would not use them. A lot of the "slick colored" paper [most magazines, and some boxes] has a plastic film incorporated on it, to give it a shine.
Personally, I do not add any of that "slick" paper to my compost... it doesn't break down well (if at all), and I don't know what chemicals it might release into the compost/soil.

[Zapatay]

Great - I'll have a brother mow over the area a few times this weekend.
I think I'll have enough leaves and other misc items to cover the area for next season.

I have aged manure but my swissies think it's the most yummy-thing ever so I'll need to wait for a solution on keeping it away from them.



Apple - yay for bradley method! Not sure what'll happen but I'm hoping for a VBAC this time around - My 3yr old was 11.3 pounds at birth .... We'll see how this one goes. We are half Mexican and half Viking .... babies are viking size.... fertility is mexican.

The baby has dropped into position so it wont be too long I'll be posting my gardening photos with a baby wrapped to my back next spring.

[gixxerific]

Good luck and can't wait to see the new one.

Are diapers compostable?

[Zapatay]

Actually if you go cloth diapering, they are! Gdiapers!

http://www.gdiapers.com/happy-planet/gr ... degradable

Just the wet ones though - No poop.