Earlier this spring, I cleaned out my flower bed. I removed what I knew were old plants, weeds included, and left the flowering daffodils and tulip (yes one tulip). I had some bulbs that I bought last year and didn't plant because I was too preoccupied with work and classes, but they didn't do well and rotted away instead. One of my friends gave me a clump of sedums, which I've planted near my rickety porch (which seriously needs to be repaired, another project in the making), along some plants that grow tiny white flowers that resemble snowballs, and another plant, a bush of some sort, that seems to resemble an azalea bush. The sedums are growing well, but as my friend explained, they don't require anything special, which means that even I could grow them.
Hubby and I picked up a clematis plant a few weeks back, but the day after I planted it we received nearly 2 weeks of constant rain. All of the pretty pedals fell off, and I'm not sure they're going to survive. We picked up a couple of coral bell plants, and they are growing nicely, but that's all in a flower bed that looks very empty, except for the 3 plants and weeds that won't go away.
I've been looking on line for tips to get rid of weeds, but I don't want to do anything to kill off the plants I want there. In the meantime I've learned how important mulch is. The problem is money is an issue, meaning I don't have the cash to spare to buy mulch and dirt, especially if I could get what I need in the woods behind my home or from discarded food from the kitchen.
I'm obviously in the learning stages of this new venture, so when it comes to mulch, compost, and gardening, I'm quite the novice.
One of my plans for this coming week is to grab an old tote in the basement, hold on to kitchen scraps (banana peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, and fruit and vegetable discards) in the meantime, add some dirt from our discarded garden, and gather some old leaves from the woods behind the house to try my hand at composting.
As for my attempt at making mulch, I think I'm going to lay out some newspapers (black and white ink only) in the areas of my flower bed and between the strawberries in my "old" garden area, to hopefully kill off some of the weeds. One site I found helpful said to add some grass clippings or compost (I'm thinking dirt for now) on top and wet the paper so it stays. Supposedly in time it will decompose and in the meantime it will kill the weeds it is covering.
I bought a couple of tomato plants yesterday and planted them in containers. I crumbled egg shells on the soil and watered them today with water that had coffee grounds in it. According to another site, both egg shells and coffee grounds add important nutrients to the soil, and seeing how I got the soil from my old garden, I felt it needed a boost of nutrients.
One more issue that I've been dealing with for years, are the weeds that seem to grow between my brings on our patio area. Some of the weeds grow quite high if I don't pull them out first, and it looks messy. I don't mind the moss, just the large weeds. Yet another site I found suggested either a spray mixture of vinegar, dish soap (Dawn), and if I'm remembering right, salt. Applied early on a dry, hot day, it's supposed to "burn" the weeds and kill them off. Another option would be to sprinkle baking soda. The theory on that one is that it changes the ph of the soil, making it unsuitable for weeds to grow. We'll see what I choose to try.
If anyone, anyone at all, happens to have any tips or great ideas that I haven't come across, please feel free to share or redirect me to a site that will help me. Any help would be appreciated.
I would have posted pictures, but it's raining. I promise to post some soon.
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