Calling all Gardeners!

[Gabby]

I've inherited a garden out at the cabin and the previous owners had "let it go" the summer before we took possesion last fall. So this year has been a real battle to keep the weeds at bay., especially since we don't get out every week to work with it.

Anywho, this garden came with a strawberry patch and asperigus patch. I am not familar with either. The strawberries have been over grown with grass and slowly I am getting it under control but now the strawberries are putting out their runners for next years plants. Am I suppose to let all the runners take root or should I cut them back to just one or two plants? Also what kind of mulch would work the best to keep the berries clean the weeds back? I thought of maybe using straw but I'm worried that it'll just introduce more weeds.

The asparagus is also over grown and I have let it go to seed. It was probably a bit early but I really had no choice. I have no clue how to battle the weeds there. The asparagus I have seen grown commercially was grown on mounds and in rows, this is just scattered. One garden center thought it may be a wild varity. Any suggestions on battling the weeds? Shoudl I try and conform it to rows? If I dig it in, it will take years before I can harvest yummy asparagus again. I hate using herbacide but if I waited for the asparagus to seed and then die back, could I use a herbacide to without killing the asparagus?

It's all been so frustrating.

[Gabby]

[mossrose]

I can't help you, Chris. We used to grow strawberries in a raised bed, and pretty much let them do whatever they wanted, but tried to keep them off the ground. That was a very long time ago.

And I know nothing about asparagus.

But here are some links to places that MIGHT be able to help. I haven't examined them closely, so I could be wrong.

:huggy:

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/homes/a/gardening.htm

http://www.halinet.on.ca/library/garden.htm

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tradeeh/all/

[Crow]

The way we used to deal with old played out strawberry patches was to mow them down with a lawnmower in the spring.

The plants sent out new runners from the old crowns, and the next year the new runners had rooted in good and bore well.

Or we'd just rototill the patch in a striped pattern, leaving a strip of undisturbed plants between each row to send out the runners for next year's harvest.

With asparagus, we fertilized well but didn't hoe. We dug out any plants that had berries and discarded them. Those are the female plants and the male plants bear better. If your plants are crowded, , the female plants are the one to cull. But you can use them if you want, they just bear less because they put more some of their energy into making berries instead of making shoots. It's a personal preference. I know lots of people who don't cull them.

[Gabby]

The way we used to deal with old played out strawberry patches was to mow them down with a lawnmower in the spring.

The plants sent out new runners from the old crowns, and the next year the new runners had rooted in good and bore well.

Or we'd just rototill the patch in a striped pattern, leaving a strip of undisturbed plants between each row to send out the runners for next year's harvest.

With asparagus, we fertilized well but didn't hoe. We dug out any plants that had berries and discarded them. Those are the female plants and the male plants bear better. If your plants are crowded, , the female plants are the one to cull. But you can use them if you want, they just bear less because they put more some of their energy into making berries instead of making shoots. It's a personal preference. I know lots of people who don't cull them.

The asparagus is a whole new ball game for me. The weeds are almost impossible in there and since there aren't rows it's difficult to weed with out damaging the asparagus. How do I tell the male and female plants apart when I've let them grow into ferns? and to cull the female plants do I dig the whole root out or just cut them down? How did you keep the weeds down in your patch?

Did you use any kind of mulch for your strawberries?

[Gabby]

I can't help you, Chris. We used to grow strawberries in a raised bed, and pretty much let them do whatever they wanted, but tried to keep them off the ground. That was a very long time ago.

And I know nothing about asparagus.

But here are some links to places that MIGHT be able to help. I haven't examined them closely, so I could be wrong.

:huggy:

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/homes/a/gardening.htm

http://www.halinet.on.ca/library/garden.htm

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tradeeh/all/

Thank you Mossy!

[TyRockwell]

I, like my grandfather use pine straw to mulch strawberries. Works great, keeps weeds smothered and not much chance of growing a pine tree.

I've never grown asparagus, I'd like to give it a try, but do I have to eat it? (I am a grandchild.)

[JardinPrayer]

If I were in your shoes, Gabby, I would be sorely tempted to pull everything up, till and condition the soil with some sort of organic matter, and install young plants during the next growing season purchased from the local garden center .

I don't mulch my edibles...perhaps I should. When I use mulch, it's usually cypress...mostly because I don't like the appearance of pine straw. I can't honestly say cypress mulch does a great job of controlling weeds, however.

There, I've been absolutely no help at all, have I?

I do know this, though: If you take some cheap chewing tobacco and put a small handful in a pouch of cheesecloth, let it steep in a 5-gallon bucket of hot water overnight, and then load it into a hose-end sprayer, you'll have a wonderful, natural insect repellent that won't get nasty chemicals all over your edibles.

[Gabby]

I've never heard of pine straw. Is it pine needles?

[TyRockwell]

I've never heard of pine straw. Is it pine needles?

Yep, same stuff.

[mossrose]

Aren't pine needles horribly acidic? There is no grass around any pines and spruces around here.

So, unless a plant likes really acid soil, then pine needles may not make such a good mulch.

We use peat moss for mulching here.

[mossrose]

I do know this, though: If you take some cheap chewing tobacco and put a small handful in a pouch of cheesecloth, let it steep in a 5-gallon bucket of hot water overnight, and then load it into a hose-end sprayer, you'll have a wonderful, natural insect repellent that won't get nasty chemicals all over your edibles.

Mr. mossy used to get even cheaper tobacco by asking his students to save their butts for him and he would bring them all home and steep them.

:yuck:

But with all the anti-smoking stuff going on around here these days, he hasn't been able to do that lately.

[TyRockwell]

Aren't pine needles horribly acidic? There is no grass around any pines and spruces around here.

So, unless a plant likes really acid soil, then pine needles may not make such a good mulch.

We use peat moss for mulching here.

They are somewhat acidic, but I use the old dried out brown needles that have been depleted of their moisture and therefore its acidity. If the soil becomes too acid you can use lime to rebalance it. But strawberries like a little acidity.

[Crow]

The asparagus is a whole new ball game for me. The weeds are almost impossible in there and since there aren't rows it's difficult to weed with out damaging the asparagus. How do I tell the male and female plants apart when I've let them grow into ferns? and to cull the female plants do I dig the whole root out or just cut them down? How did you keep the weeds down in your patch?

Did you use any kind of mulch for your strawberries?

On the asparagus--female plants will produce berries this fall. You're supposed to let them grow into ferns. After the spring harvest of spears, the ferns supply the nutrients that will see the plants through the winter.

I'd pull the weeds as best I could now, fertilize it, and let that be sufficient. If it were my asparagus and it had gone many years without division, I'd start digging up a small portion each spring, dividing it, and planting it into well tilled soil and get a new bed that way. If you do that, really till the soil deep and work in a lot of rotten manure or leaves or compost. An asparagus bed can last you for 15 years or more, just don't harvest any from the new beds until the 3rd year. That way they'll have time to establish well.

Strawberries--we never mulched them. Some do, but for us the strawberry foliage was thick enough it kept evaporation way down. And for us, the mulch encouraged mold, but it really depends on what your worst problem is-- too dry or too damp. If you want to mulch them, wheat straw is good.

[Crow]

Aren't pine needles horribly acidic? There is no grass around any pines and spruces around here.

So, unless a plant likes really acid soil, then pine needles may not make such a good mulch.

We use peat moss for mulching here.

Peat moss is also acidic. I tend to look around and use whatever is free. I've used old carpet and newspapers and it looks like crap, but it works fine for everything I've ever tried it on. Even old plastic works great.