On top of the compost pile, where the freshest manure is emptied, dropped BOSS sunflowers sprout. They sprout all year around, but only survive until the next hard freeze. In the spring though, I take a shovel and carefully scoop deep enough to keep all the roots, and I transplant the sprouts to areas I want the sunflowers to be.
Sunflowers aren't known for transplanting very well, but using this method, many of them do succeed.
These are seeds from the BOSS bags. Hardy, tall, insect-resistant plants.
I am composting as much as I can, raking leaves, visiting places for paper they'd otherwise trash, scraping up the hay the goats don't eat. All of it is composted. But this year, I need LOADS.
Remember these?
Some plants are just a few inches tall, some are six feet. Dry as a bone and they drop those prickly burs with the lightest touch, the lightest puff of wind, and you can't weed wack them, hand cut, pull up, or stare fearfully at them without coming away covered and itchy. I hate them.
Had a bush hog service come in to cut what they could, but the rest I'll have to do by hand. Like I said though, even a light touch and they drop seeds. Seeds that will be back with a vengeance next year.
Two years ago, I covered about an acre of land with cardboard, and filled it with layers to compost over the winter. This method is called Lasagna Gardening and it worked WONDERFULLY. I was actually ahead of the weeds this way (they have a hard time coming up through the layers of cardboard the first year) and I had the best yield ever with everything I cultivated.
So I am thinking of trying the same with all of the beggar tick areas. Cover them with layers of cardboard, compost, compost, compost, and plant what I want to see growing. And although I have plans for several things, I know I will not have enough compost to do it all.
But sunflowers have been so easy to grow in those plops of rabbit manure that I was wondering if I could get away with a scoop of topsoil/compost, and dropping a sunflower transplant in manure on top of that with a little mulch. Sunflower is VERY resourceful and roots will break through rock, so cardboard shouldn't be too hard but... I might poke a hole under each one just in case. Planted about 8" apart, with 30" row spacing, just a couple of scoops of mix each planting... It would hopefully allow me to reach most of the areas if I could stretch out my resources this way. In some places I might be able to try weed killer. I do as much weeding by hand and mowing, and weed whacking as I can, but I couldn't keep ahead of them this season so I don't have much hope for next either.
Will it work? I don't know. But I've got to try SOMETHING. If nothing else, I will have ugly cardboard everywhere but flattened beggerticks beneath it is better than having them standing like a killer hedgewall. And this way, it will give all the little prop planes that fly over something to scratch their heads about. "What in the world is she doing down there?" :lol:
Sunflowers aren't known for transplanting very well, but using this method, many of them do succeed.
These are seeds from the BOSS bags. Hardy, tall, insect-resistant plants.
I am composting as much as I can, raking leaves, visiting places for paper they'd otherwise trash, scraping up the hay the goats don't eat. All of it is composted. But this year, I need LOADS.
Remember these?
Some plants are just a few inches tall, some are six feet. Dry as a bone and they drop those prickly burs with the lightest touch, the lightest puff of wind, and you can't weed wack them, hand cut, pull up, or stare fearfully at them without coming away covered and itchy. I hate them.
Had a bush hog service come in to cut what they could, but the rest I'll have to do by hand. Like I said though, even a light touch and they drop seeds. Seeds that will be back with a vengeance next year.
Two years ago, I covered about an acre of land with cardboard, and filled it with layers to compost over the winter. This method is called Lasagna Gardening and it worked WONDERFULLY. I was actually ahead of the weeds this way (they have a hard time coming up through the layers of cardboard the first year) and I had the best yield ever with everything I cultivated.
So I am thinking of trying the same with all of the beggar tick areas. Cover them with layers of cardboard, compost, compost, compost, and plant what I want to see growing. And although I have plans for several things, I know I will not have enough compost to do it all.
But sunflowers have been so easy to grow in those plops of rabbit manure that I was wondering if I could get away with a scoop of topsoil/compost, and dropping a sunflower transplant in manure on top of that with a little mulch. Sunflower is VERY resourceful and roots will break through rock, so cardboard shouldn't be too hard but... I might poke a hole under each one just in case. Planted about 8" apart, with 30" row spacing, just a couple of scoops of mix each planting... It would hopefully allow me to reach most of the areas if I could stretch out my resources this way. In some places I might be able to try weed killer. I do as much weeding by hand and mowing, and weed whacking as I can, but I couldn't keep ahead of them this season so I don't have much hope for next either.
Will it work? I don't know. But I've got to try SOMETHING. If nothing else, I will have ugly cardboard everywhere but flattened beggerticks beneath it is better than having them standing like a killer hedgewall. And this way, it will give all the little prop planes that fly over something to scratch their heads about. "What in the world is she doing down there?" :lol:
