plan your veggies

[grumpy]

A sawmill down the road keeps saw dust for farmers/gardeners. They let is rot and then give it away. They are very careful to keep the walnut away from this pile. It will poison the soil. The extension agent would not confirm nor deny this. But like some other stuff would you take a chance if you had a choice?

Must be something to the walnut sawdust cause folk around here won't use it anywhere around their horses.

[Eugene]

Search the web for "Black Walnut Poison".

[dgrapes59]

Thanks Eugene, interesting reading.

[Rudi]

I will not allow sawdust anywhere near my gardens period. Sawdust will cause spots similar to potato blight on potato's, same with any of the root vegetables.. I live beside a mill and the windblown sawdust is enough of a problem never mind putting it on my garden. We won't even use bark mulch in the gardens because of the different bark, wood chips, fiber etc., that are in the mix. Too acidic as well.

Some people swear by sawdust around strawberries etc., and I guess that is fine, until you crop rotate and poof.. you cannot plant root vegetables in that area. Em won't even let me amend the soil with wood ash or charcoal anymore because of that problem. I can use the wood ash in a long term compost pile to help, but it has to be at least 3 or 4 years before I can add that to the vegetable gardens. However, it is all good for flower gardens and such. I like bark mulch for around my trees and grape vines as well.

Straw, hay or any other field crop can be used as a mulch/soil amendment, but not wood products. Not a good idea.

[rickguns]

Cmon spring!!!

[howard950]

Rickguns, I can't agree more! Companion planting and what to put or not put into the ground always brings up lively discussions. I've grown vegetable gardens for many years and learn new things every year and have very few hard fast rules for my gardening. They include:
I can never have enough well composted organic matter.
Crop rotation is a good idea.
Weeding is good.
Thinning is good.
Trying new ideas on a limited scale works well to increase gardening knowledge.
I will always be picking rocks and stones out of my good New England soil every spring!

[MaineDad]

Rickguns, I can't agree more! Companion planting and what to put or not put into the ground always brings up lively discussions. I've grown vegetable gardens for many years and learn new things every year and have very few hard fast rules for my gardening. They include:
I can never have enough well composted organic matter.
Crop rotation is a good idea.
Weeding is good.
Thinning is good.
Trying new ideas on a limited scale works well to increase gardening knowledge.
I will always be picking rocks and stones out of my good New England soil every spring!

Rocks grow quite well up here too

I have a lot of information on my site; http://www.gardentractorgardening.com

[CapeCodCubs]

Good post David!!!! Companion planting is smart gardening. As for planting with the moon...I know lots that do it, I have but I mostly believe that other variables help stuff grow just as well so I'm not sure what effect it had. So in other words if I had planted by the moon and then we get 2 months of no rain.....

[Boss Hog]

Good post David!!!! Companion planting is smart gardening. As for planting with the moon...I know lots that do it, I have but I mostly believe that other variables help stuff grow just as well so I'm not sure what effect it had. So in other words if I had planted by the moon and then we get 2 months of no rain.....

I just like to get all the help I can with the Garden Lord knows I need it