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Post by wildhorseluvr on Apr 20, 2024 8:40:32 GMT
My flower bed that I want to turn into a veggie garden is currently literally overgrown with daffodils, tulips, hyacinths (grape and regular kind), a few poppies and wall to wall violets. Don’t know if these are wild violets or not…most likely some common variety. The violets and grape hyacinths have escaped the raised bed and are starting to work their way across my lawns…even into the front yard! Worse than dandelions. ☹️ I started reading up on how to get rid of them and found that digging them up is actually likely to cause them to proliferate. Same with mowing them down repeatedly. In just about every article I read, the number one suggestion was frequent doses of Roundup. Don’t want to use that on my property regardless but absolutely not anywhere I might grow food.
Anyone have any better ideas (that doesn’t require a lot of labor)? Would covering the areas with black plastic and leaving it in place during the hot summer possibly kill them off? Could certain veggies be grown in the midst of them or would the veggies simply be choked out?
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Post by woolybear on Apr 20, 2024 14:41:59 GMT
Depends on how deep your flower bed is. If it were me, I would remove several inches, up to a foot, of the dirt. That should remove all the bulbs. Then I would lay down a layer of weed barrier/black plastic/or several layers of cardboard. Fill bed back up with fresh amended dirt. I recently watched a YT about not spending money on high priced potting mixes. Instead you get some top soil, and add in compost/cow manure, peat/coco coir (moisture retention lightens the soil to prevent compaction), perlite (lightens the soil and keeps down compaction), vermiculite (moisture retention). For the price of 1 bag of 2 cubic foot of potting soil I bought 2 bags each of 1cubic foot compost/cow manure and top soil. I can barely handle the 2 cubic foot bags anymore, so the 1 cubic bags work good for me.
Or you could go a different route. Get a livestock water tank with a solid bottom and a drain plug (if no plug you'll have to drill drain holes). Do the hugelkultur method I have 6 tanks set up this way. Toss in small logs and wood chips, then a layer of grass clippings/leaves, layer of newspaper/cardboard/, chicken poop if you have access to any, keep layering until you're about a foot from the top, then top with your potting soil/mix and if you have any granulated fertilizer (I have a lot of 10-10-10 from years past). With the solid bottom tank you won't have any weeds coming up or moles/voles/prairie dogs/whatever digging up your garden. My tanks range in height from 1-3 foot, but honestly I think a 1 foot high will grow just about anything. Advantages of the stock tank over the simple raised beds- solid walls that won't bow out, solid bottoms and price. I could buy 2 tanks for less than the price of specifically branded raised beds that you would buy from amazon or a big box store.
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Apr 20, 2024 17:42:38 GMT
woolybear, thank you! The raised flower bed is about 16” deep (made of 8x16” solid concrete blocks stacked 2 high). I was planning on digging down a bit in order to add some new soil. No way can I dig it all out or afford to replace all the soil, but I think replacing 6” or more and adding some amendments is doable. And I just bought some 10-10-10. I think it was you that recently mentioned making your own soil so I watched a couple youtube videos and priced some top soil and compost at BiMart yesterday. It will be slow going, I’ll probably spend 2-3 summers doing this a little at a time. My immediate goal, if I can ever find some asparagus plants, is to start an asparagus patch on one end and a strawberry patch on the other. Stock tanks should work perfectly for the other 70’ long space I have in my backyard. There’d easily be room for plenty of 8’ stock tanks eventually. I could even fit 2x2x4’ tanks in my car..would require multiple trips but could do it myself. Or pay DD’s boyfriend to haul bigger tanks in his truck. (Dang, I left 3 good sized tanks at the farm. 🙁) I have branches and leaves from my huge maple tree and I’m friends with the manager of a local store so can get all the unprinted cardboard I want. 👍🏻
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Post by woolybear on Apr 21, 2024 16:35:36 GMT
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Apr 21, 2024 19:33:58 GMT
woolybear, I rarely saw those mineral tubs free or for sale in my former town, haven’t seen a single one since I’ve moved. We do have a Tractor Supply about 30 min away, and several other feed & farm stores in the area. I’ve actually only seen used metal water tanks for sale once, and I check the farm/garden section of craigslist frequently. I had a couple large metal tanks and one large plastic tank at my farm but have room on the truck for them. I’m probably stuck buying new ones. I’ll have to call around and see where I can get the best price. Don’t need to buy them all this year but chances are they’ll cost even more next year.
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Post by sugarspinner on Apr 21, 2024 21:25:28 GMT
We've been using old livestock watering tanks for raised beds for years. In our case, we actually already had several old ones with holes in them. For them to work, we found that we needed holes for drainage anyway. Of course you wouldn't need to worry about water trapped in them freezing, the way we do, but I think you'd need the drains anyway. Point is, it's possible you can find old tanks that are no longer useful for water tanks but that would work great for raised beds. I'd suggest asking at a local feed store, grain elevator or anywhere else where livestock farmers hang out. Free for the hauling is always good!
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Post by sugarspinner on Apr 21, 2024 21:29:13 GMT
Oh, yes, and the black mineral buckets work great, too. And, the mineral buckets are easy to move from place to place if you want them somewhere else. A mineral bucket will hold 3 or 4 plants and can even be turned over and dumped to get root veggies "dug" easily. Again, look around for farmers who raise cattle and ask.
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