Last weekend I prepared the soil of my bean bed and my popcorn bed.
Since beans don’t need added nutrients, I didn’t do anything to the soil of this bed, which is where my tomatoes grew last year. I hadn’t touched it since late last fall and it was thick with weeds. I loosened the soil a little with a fork and pulled all the weeds. Now its ready to go. I will plant bean seeds this week.
Since corn needs a lot of nutrients, I did as much as I could for this bed. Last fall I planted cover crops, a mix of winter rye, clover, vetch and field peas. Then on top of this, in the winter and early spring, I layered on a good cover of horse manure. I reseeded with clover again in early spring. The rye grew to about 2 feet tall and the clover was nice and thick. On Sunday, I cut down the rye and turned the soil. It looks really nice with lots of worms and other crawling bugs. Next time I am at the garden, I will plant my popcorn.
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You are so organised, you really do get up and go!
Marian (LondonUK)
Wow, and you work so hard. I'm waiting for the first pea martini photo. Cheers to you, Kathy!
I picked my first peas and had a fresh radish martini last evening. That photo may show up soon!
Have you ever tried a light fertilization on your beans. Most legume crops will respond to a light fertilization of manure due to the content of P and K.
Just a question from an agronimist in IA that has seen first hand the difference in soybean yeilds when beans are grown on feilds with manure applied. I love you site and I am jelous of the peas. Mine are beginning to flower but no pods that I can find yet.
Sounds like I may need some P and K on the beans. I think I'll just keep an eye on them for now because there may be enough left from last year. I added a lot of manure last year for the tomatoes that grew here.
I didn't amend my bean bed either but it was because I ran out of compost. Good to know they don't need it anyway!