Comments on: questions, anyone? (or, careful what you ask.)

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:16:56 +0000

I would like to turn an acre in NE Kansas (previously used for brome ) into a wildflower meadow with minimal time and effort. Is it possible?

My plan is to take seed heads from flowers and grasses in my established bed, toss them into the field and let nature run its course.

Am I crazy or do you think it might work?

I would like to try this with russian sage, coneflower, black-eyed susan, yarrow, prairie dropseed, little bluestem, etc.

What are your thoughts?

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:18:18 +0000

Welcome, Carmen. The thing about soil-borne problems (whether fungal or viral or actual pests) is that that aren’t just in the very spot where the old crop was the previous year, since the soil is not in some way segregated or walled off from other nearby soil, unlike in, say, two separate pots.

Ideally, we would all have three such trellises, and they would not be right next to each other, and we’d rotate tomatoes, or beans, cukes/squash, a three-year cycle, working in lots of compost in between and taking good care of the soil. I can barely rotate on a two-year cycle, and as more and more trees and shrubs here get big, bigger, biggest, I have less and less full sun for my vegetables, further reducing my rotation spots. Challenging!
So if you are “rotating” to just the adjacent other side of the trellis, that won’t be enough.

So basically we each do the best we can, on as long a cycle as we can between replanting in the same spot. Not ideal, but do your best…preferably more than the distance from one side of the same trellis to the other, though, if possible.

By: Carmen

Carmen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:30:09 +0000

Oh Margaret!!!! Can i just say you are a God-send!!! I found you through April and I am so glad I did! I have found so many answers on your site in the last day or two that I’ve been searching for on the web (maybe I’m not the “Google-Queen” that my husband says I am?). Anyway…thank you a thousand times over!!
Here’s a question…I know you should rotate crops but I have some permanent trellis-type things that my dear hubby built. Can I plant my tomatoes on the other side of the trellis next year and then the following switch with beans or cucs or something? (I hope that makes sense…I just spent the last few hours out in the garden and I am spent!) Now off to shred some zucchini…