Vegetable gardening with landscape fabric. I think it’s my new favorite thing.
After laying the landscape fabric down and planting 117 tomato plants and 53 pepper plants about 10 days ago, I switched course a bit and decided to get some beans in the ground.
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE fresh green beans.
I try to plant them about every two weeks or so. That way, we’re constantly harvesting them throughout the growing system.
I ended up planting 2 packets of pole beans along the base of the netting my husband set up for me, and then went ahead and planted a tray of bush beans I had started indoors a few weeks ago.
After that, I then set about planting a few packets of beets as well. I did a quick calculation and figured the bush beans would be ready to harvest long before the beet seedlings would even reach a few inches tall and decided to do a bit of companion planting in that spot.
My husband meanwhile toiled away in the tomato patch pounding in wooden support stakes for the 117 tomato plants. As I was watching him do that, I was busy plotting away on our next project.
Getting the leeks, onions and sweet potatoes planted.
And since we’re going all in on using landscape fabric in the garden this summer to cut down on weeding… I had the HH burn a few strips in the fabric for me.
He thought it was a dumb idea. But I thought it was a pretty clever one. I guess we’ll find out at the end of the season. 😉
Experimenting in the garden… You need to do a little of it every year, don’t you think?
Next up it was time to make holes for the cabbage!
In the end we were able to plant 50 sweet potato slips, 75 Walla Walla onion starts, 75 leeks and 53 cabbage plants.
Which in hindsight kind of sounds like a lot, but the main goal is to grow, harvest and preserve enough of the bounty to try and cut out the grocery store as much as possible.
And I think we’re off to a good start.
Someone recently asked how my experiment with winter sowing in old milk jugs went.
In a nutshell, it went very well! I think I must have planted about {20} 1 gallon sized milk jugs with various seeds, and everything from leeks to poppies to peppers sprouted. The only thing that didn’t sprout were some old celosia flower seeds I had planted.
And as for what we’re harvesting in our garden right now? So far we have harvested about 3 pounds of French breakfast radishes and a boatload of chives. The spinach and lettuce I started in containers on the porch should be ready any day now. Fresh, homegrown lettuce. It’s a beautiful thing!
Well, I’m off.
Today we’re going to smooth out the front of the garden and lay down some more landscape fabric so we can get the corn and pumpkins planted next week.
Vegetable gardening with landscape fabric. It really is my new favorite thing.
~Mavis
tracey says
Will you fence yourselves in this year? We are ambushing the deer with berry nets! and with good result so far; the buffet thwarted !!
Mavis Butterfield says
I’m not sure yet if the HH is going to fence it in.
Wendy C says
Wow, that is just amazing. It all looks so neat and orderly. We finally got our garden completely planted Saturday. Now, we weed and wait.
Mavis Butterfield says
I love that lull between planting and harvesting.
Jamie says
53 cabbage….. oh my!!
Kim says
5 rows of green beans has yielded 36 quarts. I will can to get us to 50 & start giving away the rest. The plants are aging out so Curt will pull them on Saturday. In that spot, he will plant purple hull peas. I think he will harvest the potatoes next.
Continuing to pray for rain,
Kim
Anne in VA says
If you have an abundance of cabbage, you can freeze it. Blanch, plunge into icy water (with huge blocks of ice – ie, milk jugs that have been frozen) to cool. Drain well, bag and freeze.
I’ve halted planting in my garden, sadly. I only have a few tomatoes and cukes in right now. We haven’t had a drop of rain in over a month. The garden plants don’t like the artesian water from the well, so I’m not watering much. The metric for being a successful gardener in my area is having juicy tomatoes by the 4th of July. I will fail this year- I’ve got one cherry tomato on a vine (I really mean the lone stalk with one leaf).
Ashley Banas says
I’m always impressed with you, as well as your family, gardening. It’s a lot of work, but also a lot of reward. Our gardening here is a little different as in the Summer we get too much heat and sun for most of the traditional gardening items you are mentioning. We’re in SWFL. Fall to early Spring is better for gardening here. I’ve set up two garden beds and filled one in with butterfly plants. The other one which I’ve yet to fill with soil is under a tree and gets shade most of the day, I plan to have that one be a veg garden in time.
Emily says
This is a bit of a thinking ahead t question. Will you attempt to reuse the landscape fabric next year? If so do you wash it in between?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, the fabric gets rinsed at the end of the season, rolled up, stored and reused next summer. 🙂
Diane says
This is the first year I’ve grown potatoes. As my 1st attempt, I am using a grow bags. How high do you let the plants get before hilling in? I’ve read of people using straw to hill in instead of soil. Have you done this method, straw vs soil? I am leaning towards using straw because it would be lighter if I have to move my grow bags. I would love to hear your thoughts about this if you have time. Thanks
Diana near Atlanta says
Whether to hill your plants depends on if they’re determinate or indeterminate. Look up the variety name on your web browser to see. If they’re determinate, you don’t need to hill – the potatoes will grow pretty much at the level you planted your starts. Indeterminate needs hilling. Potatoes will grow along the vine, so I usually use dirt at first, then when the potatoes start peeking above the dirt, I use straw to protect them from the sun.
Good luck!
The Duck Lady says
I never hill with dirt. I’ve only used straw and it’s been fine. This year I’m using grass clippings first to smother any weeds then straw, but thats in the ground not in bags.
Katherine says
I’m experimenting using Olla’s made from terracotta pots in my raised tomato, squash, cuke and melon beds. Living in Ga it’s hot and humid and the less time I am spending watering my garden the better. I check the Ollas every 5 days and if they are less than half full I fill them back up. So far, my plants are extremely happy.
Diana near Atlanta says
Where did you get your ollas from? I’m in GA, too, and have been trying to find ways to stand out in the sun watering.
Diana near Atlanta says
*avoid* standing in the sun, lol.
Katherine says
I made mine from terracotta pots using silicone to fill the drainage holes. I used 8″ pots and 8.27 ” saucers as the lids. I wanted to see how well it worked before investing in the “real” thing. There are a variety of places to buy them online as well as quite a few video’s with good information on using ollas.
Angelia Johnson says
Me too. This year is my first year using them. We made ours this year but I am pretty sure I will upgrade. To one of the olla irrigations systems.
Katherine says
Hopefully this experiment will be successful for both of us. If so, I plan to add Ollas to my Christmas list this year.
Angelia Johnson says
Have you thought about perennial leeks, green onions, and green beans. I like having them come up every year without having to plant new. I just have to fertilize them every year. With your new family size garden it would be nice to have a few things on auto pilot..
Allison says
Is the landscape fabric biodegradable? I’ve used it in the past, but the old stuff is found round my house gradually starts to crumble, and then it’s just landfill fodder. I struggle with gardening in this way.
Mavis Butterfield says
The fabric is not there permanently. It gets rinsed at the end of the season, rolled up, stored and reused next summer
Gigi says
I’m experimenting with rotted hay in the garden this year. I had 20 bales that were used as a winter wind break around my bee hives. This spring, I moved them to the garden for mulch. So far so good. The weeds are gone and the plants are growing.
Rita says
I’ve always wondered how you fertilize the plants when using landscape fabric. Or do they not need fertilizer?
Mavis Butterfield says
I don’t fertilize the plants. 🙂
Rita says
You just amend your soil before you put the landscape fabric down and that’s it? You surely do have a green thumb!
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes.
Holly says
Can you provide a specific link to the landscape fabric you’re using? I don’t know which one is yours on Amazon.
Mavis Butterfield says
Both The Duck Lady and I use the DeWitt SBLT4300 Sunbelt Ground Cover Weed Barrier, 4-Feet Width by 300-Feet.