Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

A PVFS Customer question - Staff answered:

Question:

I just received your email newsletter which talked about cover crops.   I’m very interested, and I have some questions.

There is a section that talks about hillside erosion control.   Our ‘back yard’ is a hillside, and I would love to plant something on it that would control erosion, but that wouldn’t turn into a weed-eating nightmare in the summer.   We are required to have 100′ in all directions either be green, or no taller than 4″.    It appears that all of these erosion control plants that you mention are around 2′ tall.   Do they turn brown in the summer (which would then require weed-eating)??

Also, I have about 1/2 acre of my ‘garden’ that is not fenced.   I would like to plant a cover crop that will help break up the clay soil, and that will also fix some nitrogen.    I have 2 concerns/questions:    1)  Since that area is not fenced, the deer have discovered the area….   would they simply eat all of the sprouting cover crop down to the nubs??   2)  We cleared and tilled the area last spring, but did not spray it at all, so I’m assuming that the native grasses will start sprouting up again.   Would it make more sense to wait until we get those under control before we try to grow a cover crop??   Otherwise, I’m afraid it will just be overcome by the native grasses.   What are your thoughts?

Answer:

The erosion control mixes we carry are annuals, so they would grow up and green in spring, form flowers, drop seeds, then die and turn brown, requiring weed-eating.  We do carry lower growing plants that can be used for erosion.  If you plan on watering during dry times, you can go with a perennial that will stay green year round.  If you don’t water during dry times, then you can choose a low growing annual (however, unfortunately, even the low growing annuals we carry can grow up to 12″ so sounds like they won’t work for your regulations).  Good low growing perennial choices are creeping red fescue, perennial clover, mini perennial clover-grass mix. To sum up, if you irrigate, you can choose any perennial grass or clover you want since it will stay green year round.  If you do not irrigate, you’ll have to weed-whack (but only once) after the plants have dropped their seeds and dried.  Another option is to go with native grasses.  If you live in a dry area of CA, they generally go dormant in the summer.  I suggest you contact your local Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for options.

As far as your garden area, 1) deer will graze the green manure crops you grow.  Whether or not they eat it down to the nub is uncertain.  I’d say that if you are planning on fencing the area anyway, you should do it before growing a green manure crop.   2) If the grasses are grown up in that area, ie, the ground is not clear, then yes, you should re-till before planting your cover crop seed.  One consideration is that if the grasses are annuals and they’ve dropped seed, then you have seeds in the soil that will grow up whenever water is provided.  One solution is to clear the area and irrigate while the soil is still warm to let those unwanted seeds sprout, then till the seedlings down.  this can be repeated several times to exhaust some of the “seed bank”.  If you don’t want to do that, then grow the cover crop anyway, it is a good competitor against native grasses that might grow once you start irrigating.

Hope that helps and thank you for growing organically!

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I’m setting up an irrigation system using the poly tubing and emitters for my self watering deck planters.  The emitters will drip directly into the planter  base.  The deck is covered so I have to supply all water needs.  I want a simple system but most important a reliable one as I’ll be leaving them to their own devices for almost a month.  

I know Gardena have a good reputation, but the models shown look like much more than I need; however, one of the Gilmour models would be false economy if they aren’t reliable.

Appreciate advice.

Here is a good use of emitterline and bean scaffolding.

The scaffold is made of 1 1/4” X 8’ redwood stakes lashed at the top where they cross and then extra cross beams for strength. The stakes are 12” apart to coincide with the emitterline holes and then the beans planted at the same point. It really cuts down on weeds, virtually none, and only the beans get the water. They immediately start climbing the stakes and are easy to harvest because they are up off the ground.

The first and third pictures were taken on June 20, and the second picture was taken June 27. They’ve grown a lot in the recent heat. They also create a nice shady spot inside for my fox terrier to escape the sun. The birds like to perch on top of the stakes and are hopefully eating any worms or other unwanted insects. I hope this might inspire someone to build something pretty in the garden that functions so well. It also comes apart easily and stores well for the next season.

Question:

Hi,

I am trying to create a watering system for my front yard: http://sustainableeats.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/sustainable-lawn-conversion/ and it needs to go many different directions. I am trying to figure out the technical specs on your soaker hose in as far as I need to know how many feeder lines and what length of line I can have off a main ½” poly tubing. It seems that the soaker hose might work best since I have so many rows per raised bed and some of the beds have multiple levels of height.

I’m a little overwhelmed and need to get this ordered soon so I would appreciate any help you can give me. I’ll be blogging extensively about this since I think it would be beneficial for the home veggie grower.

Warmly,
Annette
http://www.SustainableEats.Wordpress.com

Answer:

Hi Annette,

Kudos on your efforts and plans! I enjoyed your blog…

I understand your feelings of being overwhelmed, you are not alone! Keep in mind that setting up a drip system will take some trial and error, observation, tweaking, etc. before it is a (somewhat) self-sustaining system. There are many choices in drip irrigation, and oftentimes small-scale growers use different systems or parts depending on the different crops they grow. For example, T-Tape or Soaker hose is often used for greens and other crops that are planted close together because it soaks the entire surface of the soil. For tomatoes, however, poly tubing with emitters or shrubblers might be the way to go, so as to bring water directly to the roots instead of over the entire bed (by watering more point-specific, you cut back on water waste as well as weed growth).

You could go with just the T-Tape or Soaker Hose since it is more simple (at least until you have time to figure out the rest). I personally prefer T-Tape, because its easier to have spaces that do not emit water (in the paths between beds for example) and I can have beds with Poly Tubing and emitters mixed in. Basically, you use poly tubing: as the “foundation” and run the T-Tape from it. The way to connect T-Tape to poly tubing is to run the poly down the width of the beds and use the Tape-Loc 1/4″ barbed fitting to attach the T-Tape: . The barb goes into the poly tubing perpendicular, like this TTTT the lines going down representing the T-Tape. This is the punch.

If you choose Soaker Hose, the benefit is that you can snake it around; it doesn’t need to be in straight lines like the T-Tape, these are the fittings, it also explains some of the specs. The soaker hose we currently have does not connect to Poly Tubing.

I’d be glad to talk to you about it over the phone, if all this is confusing you even more! It’s difficult to explain in writing.

ps-Here’s a good overview of factors to consider as well as defined terms: http://attra.ncat.org/intern_handbook/irrigation.html

Hope that helps and thank you for growing organically!

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I have built a bottomless 4′x8′ wooden box to contain my soil block transplants. I intend to water them automatically on a timer. I am considering placing a lenght of 1/2″ poly tubing on wire hoops down the length of the box. I would like to directly insert fogger-mister(IRE200) in the tubing. My question is how many misters and at what spacing do I have to install them to evenly water the entire area of the box?

And, is it even possible to insert the mister directly into the poly tubing?

Stock market downturn got you down? Wall Street bail out got you scratching your head about where to invest? Well I have a suggestion for you… Invest in a garden! Once established a garden can produce thousands of dollars worth of fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts, for less than $100 dollars of investment each year. Now if you ask me, that’s what a return on your investment should look like. Even google stocks can’t provide 1000% return… (can they?). What about the security of your investment, you ask? Well there are risks associated with all investments. Deer could come looking for a snack, aphids might too (we’ve got solutions for that)… you might have an unexpected freeze or you might forget to water it (we have solutions for that too). But for the most part home gardens rarely fail to produce some produce.

Just in case my math is not getting through to you, let’s talk taste;

Money (while some enjoy the smell), tastes awful! The texture is no good, the flavor is like a combination of greed and the inside of other peoples pockets. Aside from the obvious fiber benefit the nutritional value is nil.

Fruits and vegetables on the other hand are delicious! You can grow better, more tasty varieties of all types of fruit and vegetables in your garden than super market suppliers do (since you don’t have to ship them across the continent). Your garden investment returns will have a fiber content rivaling any denomination of money. They will also have all the other vitamins and minerals you need, this will give you the energy you need to do things like… umm, live. As long as we are on the subject of living, the idea that gardening is something that takes a lot of time… it’s not true. A modern home garden, with a timed drip irrigation system, healthy soil, using some kind of organic or sustainable principles needs little to no daily maintenance. This year I have been slacking off in my garden. I planted my seedlings and transplants in spring over a weekend. Adjusted and fixed my irrigation system a few weekends later.

A recent New York Times article reported that Americans spend 15% of their money on Food & Beverages… however only 1% on fresh fruits and vegetables. That means only one fifteenth of our average food budget is spent on fresh food. Now if you say the medium income in the U.S. is around $40,000 a year… say 1% of that is spent on fresh fruit and veggies now, that’s $400 a year you can save right off the top. But if you get half of what you would spend on food out of your garden (this is what most avid vegetable gardeners could do) you’d save yourself $3,000 a year.

Now this ideas is not mine alone, apparently lots of Americans are digging into gardening to fight the fiscal crisis. We’ve seen a rise in new customers in the last year or so. So next time you read or hear a report about our failing financial system, or how the stock market is going to crash… remember that’s the stock market, not the farmers’ market. Money is not on the list of “Things Needed To Live” (it feels like it sometimes, I know)… nobody ever fills their back yard bunker with money… they fill it with canned fruits and vegetables. I am positive that economists and wall street strategists across the nation will admittedly disagree with me when I tell you to take your money (at least $100 of it) out of stocks and invest it in a garden. But I’m okay with that, economists and those on wall street are the ones who got us here in the first place.

I’d rather take the advice of a local farmer, you’ll notice no one ever blames them for financial crisis, or wars, or irresponsible lending… there are a few out there that use too many pesticides… but we’re working on that too. So take some of your green backs and put them in produce backed stalks, you’re sure to see a greener yard, a greener planet and a little more green backs in you wallet. Here at Peaceful Valley we believe you can have your planet and eat it too ;-).

Right now people are ordering mostly irrigation supplies and fertilizer!

Folks living in colder regions are ordering seeds and row covers.

Also, it seems like composting with worms is a hot thing to do this year; we are selling our can-o-worms and the redworms like hot cakes. People are really excited about trying this method of generating compost.

- Suzanne in the Call Center