Clay Bottom Farm

Gardening without Plastic. Instead of plastic netting, this year we used a jute net for cucumbers. At season’s end, the cucumber plants and the net will both go into the compost heap. No wrangling vines free from the plastic. That’s a burlap roll on the ground, as a w**d barrier. 🙂 Our goal this year is reduce plastic as much as we can.

Living mulch update: We grew a “green” carpet between tomatoes this year, using low-growing cover crops, instead of using plastic or landscaping fabric. We tried three approaches.

Clover (New Zealand white).
Cereal rye.
Clover-rye mixed.

All are now established. Our favorite is the clover rye mix. Rye established fast and the clover is forming a nice mat underneath it. We mow it once a week and use clippings to mulch. If you haven’t used living mulches, I encourage you to give them a try.

Swift blocker! Here’s a montage showing how I start plants with soil blocks. No plastic flats this year or likely ever again. I love Swift Blockers, the tool for making the blocks. They’re fast, low-effort, produce great starts, reasonably priced. Tomatoes are 3 weeks old at transplanting time. Details for growers:
….
—Key to good soil blocks is super wet potting mix. Think wet mud.
—I’m using perforated trays from Small Farm Works and solid bottom trays from same as my paper pot set up.
—I start almost everything in the 72 cell Swift blocker, to economize on space. I usually indent holes in each a bit with my fingers before pressing.
—Cover is fine vermiculite.
—Potting mix is Fort Light