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Re: Empty Squares

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Mary:
Weeds are always a problem, yet one person's weed is another person's row cover. If you control what grows in those squares then it is a row cover, and the best way to control the row cover is to plant or encourage annuals not perennials.  

Remember, annuals die every year and perennials have a massive root structure that lives on through many adverse circumstances, such as freezing weather and weed pulling activity. Annual clovers, rye grass, or other types of ground cover are examples of GOOD types of row cover.

A week before you plan to plant, turn your row cover crop under. Since you are using the square foot method, your area is small, so turn the row cover with a shovel or (my favorite) a potato fork. Push the fork into the soil and pick up a fork load...then turn the growing side down into the same hole in the ground. 

This green side becomes compost and the soil exposed can be examined for unwanted pests at this time. Earthworms are good, but white types of beetle larvae are not. These larva will not hurt you, but the feet of their legs are grippers. They may give you a fright the first time you handle...especially if you have never seen them before. Don't worry! Don't just throw them out of the garden, you should kill them. If you have chickens they will eat these larva.

Let the turned soil set for a few days, and work the dead and dying row crop into the soil structure. Then plant your next crop.

This is the short version, and I hope it helps.

Have a great day,
Sheryl A. McCoy
         
---
"Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her
patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric
reveals the organization of the entire tapestry."
-Richard Feynman
















On Tue, 20 Apr 1999 08:08:47   Mary Thorp wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>I have some root crops, cole crops, lettuces and peas in place in the
>garden (my first sqft. and I love it!) but there are lots of squares
>without anything but a bumper crop of wild onions.  Does anyone do
>anything special with these squares other than weed them regularly?  Is
>it best to keep them weeded or to assume that I'll just weed each square
>when the time comes to put in that pepper/eggplant/basil/whatever?
>Would it make sense to mulch them?  Cover crops?  Any help from you
>experienced gardeners would be vastly appreciated.
>
>Mary Thorp
>Richmond, IN  Zone 6
>
>
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