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| Crepe Myrtle looks like fireworks here, and Buckwheat feeds the bees and soil. |
Questions are frequently asked about what to do in the fall for the spring garden. If fall bulbs are not planted - and they are so easy - there is plenty to do otherwise.
Roto-tillers feel manly, but they mix up and destroy the creatures God made to help, build, perfect, and repair the soil.
One British expert, Shewell-Cooper, resolved a lot of problems for me by writing - "Put the organic matter on top. The soil creatures will pull it down. If they are completely full, the top layer of compost becomes the perfect mulch." (Paraphrased)
Organic ingredients that will improve the soil - even become the soil - wherever they are placed:
- Leaves, wood mulch, wood chips, sawdust, lawn grass, and twigs
- You can dump bags and bags of neighbors' leaves on growing areas. They are ideal for protecting roses during a bad winter. Leaves can be composted in one area, for gardeners who love extra work. I spread them around the garden areas and they stay there. In late spring they are absorbed into the soil and apparently gone.
- Newsprint and cardboard can be held down by mulch, manure, and wood chips. A tomato garden can start in the fall, with a layer of cardboard (no peeking) held down by organic matter. In the spring, open up holes for tomato plants, beans, whatever works.
- Cow, horse, goat, rabbit, poultry manure (avoid cat and dog manure)
- Weeds - unless they are rampant and toxic - like Hemlock and Giant Hogweed, Deadly Nightshade. If the plant is shockingly robust and exotic, it may also be highly toxic.
- You may want Wild Strawberries, planted with love by the birds who adore the berries. They bloom early, bloom in the shade, and bloom all summer. They are a relief program for ground feeding birds.
God invented mulch, so use it.
The covering of organic mulch I conjured in your minds - above - will serve several purposes in autumn, winter, and spring:
- The organic blanket keeps the soil warmer, moister, and more fertile by maximizing conditions as long as possible.
- The organic blanket keeps soil from blowing away in harsh winds.
- Best of all, this blanket becomes the soil. Place a tree stump in one spot and watch how it rots out and crumbles in a few years. Soil creatures come for food. Toads come for nums. Insects become fat and fatten the toads.
- You call it rot - I call it God's recycling.
Fungus is the powerhouse.
All soil creatures work for their benefit and for the benefit of others. Nothing is more powerful than soil fungus.
Serious, lazy gardeners will sell their roto-tillers covertly, rest a lot more, and use Creation methods. God clearly made all things through Christ the Word, the Lord of Creation.
