Many of my posts will be insight into my raw vegan/hippy/alt lifestyle with much consideration of budget. Because we all want to put any extra bucks into cryptocurrencies!
This post is in regards to getting the raised beds ready for winter.It is dropping to 30 degrees (F) here at night and I don't want my dinner greens to freeze. I have 10 raised bed gardens that will be easy to cover with plastic to hold in the warmth and moisture for the plants.
Think about how hot your car gets in the summer with no windows cracked open, or a better analogy, how steemy your bathroom gets from a hot shower. Same science happening when you cover your raised bed gardens with plastic.
If this is something you want to try be sure to buy green house plastic!!! -VERY important. If you use just any O' plastic it will deteriorate in the sun fast and become a crumbly mess. If your just dealing with your 5"x2' window planter on your New York balcony, and your to lazy to delligate someone to move it inside for you, you can finegal using your old plastic grocery bag for one winter season. Just get the old bag in the garbage the second the bulbs start popping up in spring.
However if your a cool cat with some large raised beds the brand of plastic I use is called Sun Master. It is rated for seven years. This means the sixth year of owning this plastic dispose of it before it starts to be a crumbly mess!
One thing that is a huge battle for your pacific northwest gardeners is Slugs! These slimy little assholes eat everything. See how my poor cabbage has all these vindictive little holes munched out of the middle of the leaf? Yes, those are from slugs. They do not even much from the end of the leaf inward, they have to put holes right in the middle! So now before each hoop goes up microscopic knifes were sprinkled on each plant. These microscopic slug repelling knifes is a powder called Diatomaceous Earth. Diatomaceous Earth is powderized fossil/shells. You can see Diatomaceous Earth in white powder specs on this planet. Since it rains here 9 months of the year most all natural slug remedies would wash off until you have your hoops up. I do not use expensive anti-slug stuff like Slug-O so I spent some of my free evenings outside in the dark with a flash light plucking and launching these little suckers onto the gravel drive way where their slimy little bodies then expload. But now I won't have to do that.
This is my Diatomaceous Earth sprinkling weapon. A repurposed plastic cup brought home from a basement metal show kegger. These cups were stacked with five others and drilled out five 3/8" holes in the bottom and were used for plant starts last spring. Now one of these cups is a loaded Diatomaceous Earth shaker.
This area has a strong south by south east wind that comes whipping through the neighbors christmas tree farm then over the raised beds. So I had a friend help me cut twine to fit around the edge of the beds. My friends are so cool. He showed me the secret tip to make a loop at both ends of the twine and latch it with a bungee cord.
Here you can really get a visual of the plastic cover at work. As all of the rich soil produces heat and vapors it gets trapped under the hoop. The soil has all sorts of good stuff in it. Alpaca manure, earth worms and earth worm castings from the composters. Alpaca manure and rabbit poo are my top two recommended additives for your plants outside. These two kinds of manure do not need to be aged for years before placing them in the garden. I used Craigslist to find local animal turds for the garden.
This hoop is cut concrete reinforcement, Very sturdy, 10gauge wire. (Do not unroll and cut this stuff alone.) I bought it in a large roll from the local hardware store. In the summer I use this hoop as a treallice for other plants, then come winter it is my hoop for the raised beds.
I hope you enjoyed this post.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Portia Jay's
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