Grass mulch

I found your comments very interesting on the use of grass clippings.  In Greece our climate is hot, windy, dry all summer with rain ending in April or May and returning in September.  (Hopefully) Sometimes we get one or two rains in the Summer. I use drippers in my garden for watering and put newspapers between the rows or brown paper bags cut flat.  On top of that I add as much grass clippings as I can find locally.  Usually the whole garden gets covered like a thick carpet by the end of Summer.  Green wet grass is kept away from the plants until it is dry and then pushed closer to the vegetables to keep all weeds out.    In the fall it is cultivated in.  I found the soil is improving.  I have been doing this for 3 years.  It practically eliminates weeding and I do not have to water as often.  Since starting this system I would not consider  using any other method.  Only sweet corn is grown without the mulch method.
 
One other thing I do is when I put down the drippers I plant on both sides of the dripper line so one dripper line gives me two rows of plants.  I do this for red beets, beans, lettuce and similar plants.  Peppers, tomatoes  and individual plants get individual drippers.  I water my tomatoes much more because I read that blossom end rot comes from the tomato plant having dried out.How do you know when to water your tomatoes?  I buy disease resistant seeds and so far this year have not had to spay anything.
 
My garden has different things growing at different levels of readiness.  Some things are coming up and others are in full swing.  How do you manage to water so little when things are just coming up?  Also it takes me most of the Summer to get all the mulch collected. Therefore some things are not mulched as soon as others and mulch definitely affects the watering. I water when the smallest plant needs it and probably the mulched ones get too much water.  Periodically I spray with liquid fertilizer when I think the plants need something.
 
Lorraine Schmiege
 
Nea Kifissia , Greece
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index