Week 18 in Your Vegetable Garden

Ready to put back the layer of mulch

Here’s the deal on soil management.  Technically after the garden has been built and is planted we are not managing the soil as such.  We are managing the food source for what’s called the soil food web; all the billions of critters living in a healthy soil from the earthworms down to the smallest bacteria.  If we feed the soil food web with organic matter every year, those creatures are able to break down the minerals of the soil in a form needed to feed our vegetable plants. No organic matter, no soil food web; now the plants are dependent solely on fertilizer to live.

Soil management then entails keeping a 3 to 4 inch layer of organic mulch on the surface of the garden 365 days a year.  As the thickness of the mulch goes down, we add more material.  It is that simple.  The paths of the garden are covered with wood chips and the beds of the garden are covered full time by some organic material such as straw.  In fact straw is probably the best food for the soil food web available in most areas commercially. We live in the woods so have piles of chopped leaves to use as mulch. Notice we are not digging the straw or leaves into the soil.  The earthworms pull the straw down into the soil and distribute it to the rest of the soil food web.

Chopped leaves for mulch

If you put a layer of straw mulch over the garden after your first roto tilled it, you may not have to roto till that garden ever again; if soil is lousy clay maybe two or three years to stop tilling.  The worms and the other creatures in the soil food web will keep that soil loose and friable.  After three or four years your “good” soil will go down 12 to 15 inches and all you did was keep a layer of straw on your garden 24/7.

What’s Going On In Nature This Week

The Ruby Throated Humming bird should show up but won’t hang around much unless you put out at least one humming bird feeder.