Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s Gardening…

Thursdays

After making those newspaper pots, I planted some Grand Rapids Leaf Lettuce, Correnta Hybrid Spinach, Lemon Basil and Miike Purple Giant Japanese Mustard.

I planted some William Guinness Columbine over a month ago and didn’t think the seeds germinated, so gave up on them… When I was looking for a place to put the newly planted seeds, I discovered 2 Columbine seedlings that sprouted plus another mystery plant. So I made 3 more newspaper pots and planted these 3 seedlings into them.

The Tendergreen Bush Beans are starting to sprout and they are just breaking ground. The newspaper mulch is really helping in keeping the ground from drying.

Friday

I didn’t do any gardening on Friday because I took 3 of my friends out to sushi (yumm!!!) for their birthdays… They all have birthdays within a one week period and they live together.

Saturday

I spent the night at my friends and later went to the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery (see previous entry)

I was surprised to see that the Tendergreen Bush Beans that were just breaking ground on Thursday have 2 sets of leaves. Damn! they grew fast!

I also noticed that the bed without the newspaper bed were dry to about 1/2 inch, but the mulched ones were not, so I shredded more newspaper and mulched almost all my vegetables. I think this will help a lot.

Ready to harvest: Peas, White Icicle Radishes, 1 Eggplant, 4 Pepperocini Peppers, 2 Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers

Newspaper Mulch…

As our weather is getting warmer, I’m getting worried about my vegetable beds drying out too much. I’ve read about using shredded newspaper as an inexpensive mulch and thought I would try it. After placing the newspaper mulch in a section of my vegetable bed, I thought to myself that it kinda looks weird, like I’m growing vegetable on some other planet.

Newspaper Mulch 1

Newspaper Mulch 2

My only worry, besides the cosmetic appearance is the pill bugs and earwigs having more places to hide, but that may be true with any mulch…

Have any of you had experience using newspaper as mulch (negative or positive)? Did it work? Were bugs a problem?

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