Green Manures

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A windy day here on the mountain. The rain has finally stopped and I won't know the actual accumulation until I check the gauge at the nursery. Five gallon buckets I use to move around plants during transplanting time are filled with various amounts of water but it appears to have been quite a drop. The wind is blowing strong enough that the electric fence surrounding the bee hive is humming an odd tune I haven't heard before. Phoebes, small, brown, insect eating birds have been at the house all summer and right now they are cleaning up dead honey bees that other bees carried out of the hive since yesterday. Critter life will begin to pick up this morning now that the rain has stopped.

This time of year I clean up gardens and sometimes I make new gardens. If there is nothing to replant in an old garden, I try to use green manures to beef up the organic content of the soil. There are many green crops that gardeners use but I have always liked buckwheat over the various wheats and some of the more coarse grasses. Up top is a picture of one patch that is currently in bloom while the picture directly above here shows a seeding just 5 days out from planting.

Passersby often stop to ask about the timeline between preparing new soil and getting a new crop under way. They also ask about eliminating weeds over big areas to start vegetable gardens. This process takes time and the gardener must be vigilant to weed growth no matter what format is used.

Designating a new garden patch is the easy part but eliminating the weeds takes some work. One method is to cover the entire area with construction type poly plastic and wait for the sun and heat to kill the weeds. Clear plastic allows the sun to penetrate and burns the weeds quicker while black plastic holds the heat in more and has a better chance of killing weed seeds. Black plastic does not decompose as fast so it is a better investment if you need to reuse the plastic again.

An alternative is a spray-on herbicide that will kill all growing weeds in a couple-three weeks. One of these that works well is Green Match which is a 50% lemon grass product that is NOFA certified. It is non selective so what you spray is what will be missing in a few weeks. There is no residual impact and there are fewer application issues such as when using Round Up type chemical products which do the trick but carry widespread implications to the surroundings and possibly the applicator. There is plenty of info available on-line about safer sprays if you Google up "Green Match weed killer"

Applications of any product kill the growing weeds and do not do anything for the seeds so do not be disappointed if a really nice looking garden becomes a mass of weeds again in a couple years. Continuous weeding and cultivation is needed and you can have a quick problem again if you don't keep at the weeds. Last year's floods gave me big headaches because the gardens that I finally had under control were new homes to weeds I hadn't even seen before. Since some weed plants can produce a bazillion seeds in a year, it's important to be very observant and never let things get out of control. With larger gardens like our 5 acres where there are only two of us to maintain everything, weeds are a big issue.


As fall approaches, leaves are readily available. Avoid leaves such as oak, butternut or walnut which have high levels of tannic acid. To me, maple leaves are the best because they break down quickly and contain some important elements from deep in the soil.

Regardless of how you work the soil, think about what you add and what you subtract and do an occasional soil test to confirm how you are doing. State agriculture departments and extension services are always helpful and Master Gardeners can always help too.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where a hen turkey is passing by right now with eight kids. They look a little soggy but they are enjoying a buffet of grass seeds in the field.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
At VFF we always help you grow your green thumb!

9-11

2001 Memories

Just in from walking Karl the Wonder Dog. My first morning walk with him since returning with Gail and Alex from a vacation in Maine. Karl was pleased with the walk and the smells which result from falling temperatures and the critters of the fields and woods. As we walked, we could hear a local logger loading trucks that will head out shortly for mills in Maine. Vermont mills are limited now and I guess better prices come from hauling the logs out of state. We also heard the call of an owl. I do not know the call for sure as it was a single, quick whoo-o-o-o which might be the seldom used call of the barred owl.

911 is a memory that returns to me all the time. I know that not a week goes by but what I think about the events and everything that has transpired since. I left that day to go to Maine to buy some plants for the nursery. It probably seems odd to be buying plants at the end of a growing season but come Labor Day when things slow at the nursery, I find a need for a brief rest after working seven days a week since spring. It might seem more odd that on a day off I would be on the road before 4 AM but I had an appointment at 9:30 outside of Belfast and that's a haul from Vermont. I knew I had school buses to contend with and some unknown roads so that was my rationale for heading out so early.

My first visit was with a hosta grower who I had never met. He had a great reputation among my friends and I knew I would enjoy meeting him. As I arrived and shook his hand, there was something very strange about the welcome, something missing, almost as if it was not real. When I go on trips or vacations, I enjoy peace, and quiet is important to me so I avoid listening to the radio in the truck and avoid newspapers and any form of media. I had no idea what was happening in the world. The man introduced me to where things were located and he went back into the house as I meandered around, puzzled by his behavior, his cold salutation, his quick departure.

I got hung up looking at various gingers that I liked and spent some time with a variety of hepaticas and other wildflowers and then started picking hostas and other plants to purchase. The man's wife joined me in one of the shade houses and mentioned how terrible the events were. It was not until then that I understood what was happening. Their daughter worked at the Pentagon and there was no answer on her cell phone or work phone. The gravity of the situation had a different emotion to it and I shared my concern. My mind raced with thoughts of what happened and I felt a strange burden I could not explain. I continued on with my buying for another hour and by the time I had reached my limit, my host came back and explained the situation and said with obvious relief that he had just heard from his daughter and she was safe. I was greatly relieved too.

I headed cross country with a set of directions that was guaranteed to get me to my next destination on time. I was looking for a daylily grower in a tiny town away from the coast. By the time I arrived it was after three and I had kept an ear to the radio for a few hours. The grower's season was ending that day and his eagerness to close was even more intense due to a desire to get home to the latest news. I wished to spend more time but it was obvious that my purchases were less than important than the events of the world. I paid up, expressed thanks and hopes for safety, and I headed south to a hotel reservation.

That day was a long time ago but the memories have been repeated often and their intensity has grown. Yes, I am a gardener and I take great pride in what I do and the products that I sell. But I think often about our world and how it has changed since my earlier days. Much of what has transpired is confusing and although I continue to seek answers, I sometimes find a greater abundance of questions. Often I return to a quote attributed to Minnie Aumonier. "When the world wearies and ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden." Often we ask "why?" but there is no answer. The garden is a place to think and wait for answers.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the air is damp, the sky still lit with a slice of moon and a number of stars. The stars will extinguish soon but my thoughts of the past will continue.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
And at the nursery where we always offer to help you grow your green thumb!