I tilled the pumpkin patch the other day, an area roughly 40' X 25'. Next week, I'll be planting hills of pumpkins and squash about 6' apart, which leaves a lot of empty space that I'll be tilling to keep the weeds down until the vines start to run.
I had a crazy idea that I could plant clover in the bare areas among the hills, thinking that this could compete with the weeds, improve the soil, and be low enough that it wouldn't interfere with the vines when they run.
Has anyone ever heard of this, or tried something similar?
When I was a boy my father always planted corn, then climbing beans, then squash, all in the same spot. It was called the "Three Sisters," the beans climbed the corn, the squash shaded the roots for all of them. Dad was half Choctaw, I suppose that planting came from his ancestors. It worked pretty good in SE Texas.
for freshly flooded river bottoms it was a common succession planting technique.
more recent experimentation in another climate uses white clover in combination with rice to perpetually farm an area. the clover is flooded to weaken it before the rice is planted and then it all goes forwards until harvest. after harvest all stalks are returned the field and the clover grows until the next rice planting is due, then flooded again...
there are many ways to do things. many combinations or ways to interplant and to grow and harvest. i'd never want to get stuck with doing the same thing all the time.
yesterday i was out in the back patch digging up green garlic and eating it while weeding it from that area. weeds and food. yummy stuff. i'm about half done. rains and cold today. also had to get the thistles out of there as those are no fun to find when walking or weeding.
the strawberries along one edge will make their way further into that patch this year. i'm looking forwards to getting some berries from the plants that have already established themselves.
the whole patch is starting to get more weeds in it and because grasses are hard to remove from around the roots of alfalfa and trefoil some areas will be either dug up and turned over and grass roots removed and planted with other things or i will let the grass grow and just keep it from going to seed until i can decide what else to do with the area. i still need some of it for green manure so i won't turn it all under.
the soil back there continues to improve as i keep chopping it back and letting the worms work on it.
free food for not too much labor. i'll probably spend a few days total on the whole area this year weeding, playing, planting and of course getting more garlic out of there.
i have mostly finished the path removal project and took a few pics of the new garden space that was reclaimed from the pennyroyal and the pathway. should get those posted sometime... i'm not sleepy yet so now is as good a time as any. be back with links in a while...
Many moons ago I worked in the rice fields of SE Texas. Opened and closed levees to flood, waved off crop dusters with a cane pole with a red flag on it. Pretty good way to make a little money back then. Hardly any rice fields in SE Texas anymore, some of them are now crawfish ponds. Arkansas out did us in rice and, now, I hear it's mostly California rice. I don't care, I like my brown rice.
I'm exhausted just reading how much work you do bird.
i like brown rice too. they have dryer varieties now that don't even need flooding. not as much yield from them, but better than nothing.
wild rice will grow around here.
would like a bazooka for crop dusters and farm sprayers along with the mosquito control idiots.
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not really that much. i've probably been outside a dozen hours this week. too much rain/snow and cold windy days still.
and even when i'm out there, i'm as often as not just sitting there watching the birds and other critters. takes me a while to get into shape after winter. dig 5 minutes, rest 10, bird watch 15, ...
We're expecting 84F by afternoon today and then the rain starts again. Hot, humid, sweaty.
Harvested about a dozen sweet chiles this morning, Mostly from the Gypsy we planted in February last year, it survived our mild winter, we pruned it back earlier this year and it is really producing. The Swiss chard from last year is still going strong so there's lots of chard for cooking and salads.
Unfortunately the mosquitoes are out and about, I get hit about three times in 20 minutes in the garden. Haven't seen any swallows, red winged blackbirds, purple martins, etc. for a couple of days. They must be holed up somewhere waiting for better weather.
yeah, we've had plenty of rain the past few days. no warmth yet. average is supposed to be
65F or so, but we'll hit that only twice this week.
and have captured raccoons and a possum in the live trap.
other than green garlic and onions there's nothing out in the gardens besides flowers.
we've been moving cedar trees (before the rains came along) to fill in along a tree line that is thinning out at the bottom (pine trees). have a few more to go.
way back when we were first putting trees along the edge they ran anywhere from $5-$25 depending upon the size. we've already given away about 20 trees from our tree nursery and have moved 10 of them.
the downside to cedar trees is that the deer will eat them if the winter gets bad enough.
mosquitoes haven't shown up in force here yet, they are usually out in the early morning and evening and since i don't tend to be gardening at those times i don't get bit that much. after a really wet spell we'll have some midday mosquitoes later in the summer. those can be annoy as i'll spend more time swatting at them than getting stuff done.
the regular early season birds are here. the later season ones come along in a few more weeks. we know warm weather has officially arrived when the goldfinches and bluebirds come around. i always like watching the purple martins come through on their rounds. we usually have a pretty healthy population of bugs/bees with all these flowers.
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