The date for the start of our Life Time Adventure is approaching really fast and I had stopped starting new plants. Weeds are starting to take over empty beds and I was wandering what is the best solution to keep the beds fertile and weed free. My idea is to clear the beds of weeds, till about 6 inches deep to loosen up the earth, add in about 2~3 inches of compost if possible and rake in the compost to mix with about 2 inches of the earth. Then completely cover the bed with mashed paper egg trays. Why egg trays? This is to make sure that the irresponsible neighbour's cats do not target the beds as their public toilets. Any comments and suggestions?
First, I'd look at whether your soil needs any remediation that would take some time, such as skew pH. Now would be the time to fix the big picture things. If not, how about planting some legumes and letting them grow wild? On your return you can mulch them into the soil and you'll actually have a positive net return, since the legumes will attract mycorrizae which will fix nitrogen? Of course, the mulch idea is also net positive for soil nutrients, so I'd do both: plant legumes in mulch. As for the cats, they are also adding nutrients to your soil
Thanks Brisbane Tree, yes the soil definitely need remediation. Planting some legumes and letting them grow wild is out of the question because this will attract those monkeys to have a big celebration while I am away. My idea is to make the mini farm foodless so that the monkeys will not drop by for a meal. I read that cat poo is unhygienic and it can carry lots of bacteria which is harmful to humans. Moreover they stink ... yucks!!! Thanks 2ofus, I am also worried that the weeds will overtake the cover crop. Anyway way this is what I had done so far. A bucket of weeds removed fro the bed drying in the sun so that I can burn them and destroy the seeds. The bed that need "Holidaying" About 6~8 inches of the earth is dug up to loosen the dirt. Added dried leaves to help attract worms and composting bacteria. Supply of dried leaves is very limited. Now there are worms in the bed. Sorry poor photography. A lone observer keeping me company. Hopefully I can complete the other half by today!
I think Sjoerd plants Borage as a cover crop, you might try clover too. I don't know if the monkeys will want to eat either of them.
Thanks Toni, I googled about planting cover crops in the tropics and all of them need some care. I looked at peanuts and some beans which I'm quite interested in but the problem of pest and leaving it to its own devices might not work. I'll do more research on them and since I still have about a month and a half I might try mung beans and see how it is. In the case of the monkeys, I guess I'll have to deal with them when I return because the idea of green manure is great!
Just to see how it looks like with all the egg tray in the bed, I laid them out yesterday after adding the compost.
Will the monkeys just pull up the egg crates or are you going to weight them down somehow? I've never been around monkeys but I know raccoons would be tearing up the bed out of curiosity.
I have no idea what the monkeys will do to them 2ofus, guess I'll have to wait and see should they come back. No the egg trays are not weight down and if need be I'll use some peg to peg it down. Luckily there are no raccoons in this part of the world.
