I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

In article ,
wrote:

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Well Brainless you are not Brainless. The question as I see it is why
clover when annual rye may do ya. I'm sure Billy may give you some
specifics and if lucky Charlie may intrude along with others.
Meanwhile a compost heap may be a consideration.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?
globalvoicesonline.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

I kind of had the same situation last year. I added some compost,
bagged cow manure and then shredded leaves in the fall. I dug it all in
and let the bed rest over winter. This spring I added some slow release
organic 4-10-6 granular fertilizer and dug it in with a spading fork two
weeks before I set out my tomato transplants. I'm having a wonderful
crop of tomatoes this year along with a good crop of muskmelons also.

Rich from PA Zone 5-6

wrote in message
...
I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.


Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

In article ,
Bill who putters wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Well Brainless you are not Brainless. The question as I see it is why
clover when annual rye may do ya. I'm sure Billy may give you some
specifics and if lucky Charlie may intrude along with others.
Meanwhile a compost heap may be a consideration.

Clover, and various legumes are good for fixing nitrogen in your soil.
Your local nursery may have a mix call "green manure" as well.
Then there is buckwheat and rye. Both put out an incredible mass of root
hairs that add organic material to your soil, and leaves the soil very
easy to penetrate, for crops like carrots. I would recommend either
buckwheat or rye, and at 6 weeks to planting add 18 lbs chicken manure,
3 lbs bone meal, and an inch of wood ash per 100 sq. ft. No need to dig
it in. Cover everything with newspaper. Cover newspaper with alfalfa
(lucerne), and hose it all down. Use a trowel to dig small hole when
transferring plants to the garden. Pull back mulch if planting seeds,
then move back in when it won't block sunlight to the seedling. Maintain
mulch at 2" to 3". This technique is called sheet mulching, or lasagna
gardening.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html

On Aug 4, 4:05*pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
wrote in message

...

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" *Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

And for the best of both worlds, put in some peas that will be
delicious in Fall (better than Spring crops, for my money) and also
fix nitrogen.

Chris

"Chris" wrote in message
...
On Aug 4, 4:05 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
wrote in message

...

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of
Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if
you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

And for the best of both worlds, put in some peas that will be
delicious in Fall (better than Spring crops, for my money) and also
fix nitrogen.

Chris
=====

And cilantro. And a dozen other things. Just rip through the seed catalog.
Self-control has no place in home gardening.

On Aug 4, 5:22*pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
"Chris" wrote in message

...
On Aug 4, 4:05 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:



wrote in message

m...

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of
Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if
you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

And for the best of both worlds, put in some peas that will be
delicious in Fall (better than Spring crops, for my money) and also
fix nitrogen.

Chris
=====

And cilantro. And a dozen other things. Just rip through the seed catalog..
Self-control has no place in home gardening.

No lie. He's got 45 feet. If I tried to put in a 45 foot garden, my
wife would use my own hoe to cut off certain irreplaceable body
parts.

Chris

In article
,
Chris wrote:

On Aug 4, 5:22*pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
"Chris" wrote in message

...
On Aug 4, 4:05 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:



wrote in message

m...

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of
Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop" Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if
you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

And for the best of both worlds, put in some peas that will be
delicious in Fall (better than Spring crops, for my money) and also
fix nitrogen.

Chris
=====

And cilantro. And a dozen other things. Just rip through the seed catalog.
Self-control has no place in home gardening.

No lie. He's got 45 feet. If I tried to put in a 45 foot garden, my
wife would use my own hoe to cut off certain irreplaceable body
parts.

Chris

I assume you mean a big toe.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?
globalvoicesonline.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

"Chris" wrote in message
...
On Aug 4, 5:22 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:
"Chris" wrote in message

...
On Aug 4, 4:05 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:



wrote in message

m...

I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6" of
Top
Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year because gets
lot
of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till
next
spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover crop"
Would
this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait till fall? I am in
central Michigan zone 5.

Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch, if
you
have a bagging attachment for your mower.

And for the best of both worlds, put in some peas that will be
delicious in Fall (better than Spring crops, for my money) and also
fix nitrogen.

Chris
=====

And cilantro. And a dozen other things. Just rip through the seed catalog.
Self-control has no place in home gardening.

No lie. He's got 45 feet. If I tried to put in a 45 foot garden, my
wife would use my own hoe to cut off certain irreplaceable body
parts.

Chris
=========

He could do 45 feet of collards (assuming he likes them) and end up with
bags of frozen greens enough to last all winter. They don't suffer in
storage. You cook the bejeezus out of them anyway. And if the bugs find
them, so what? Collards laugh at bug damage.

On 8/4/2010 3:39 PM, EVP MAN wrote:

I kind of had the same situation last year. I added some compost,
bagged cow manure and then shredded leaves in the fall. I dug it all in
and let the bed rest over winter. This spring I added some slow release
organic 4-10-6 granular fertilizer and dug it in with a spading fork two
weeks before I set out my tomato transplants. I'm having a wonderful
crop of tomatoes this year along with a good crop of muskmelons also.

Rich from PA Zone 5-6




I think that was an excellent approach, Rich.

Tony M.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
...
I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6"
of Top Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year
because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till
next spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover
crop" Would this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait
till fall? I am in central Michigan zone 5.


Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch,
if you have a bagging attachment for your mower.

This would be my plan.

David

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
...
I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6"
of Top Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year
because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till
next spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover
crop" Would this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait
till fall? I am in central Michigan zone 5.


Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as mulch,
if you have a bagging attachment for your mower.

This would be my plan.

David


If there's an early frost and none of it works, he's out what - $7.37 for
seeds?

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
...
I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6"
of Top Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year
because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till
next spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover
crop" Would this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait
till fall? I am in central Michigan zone 5.


Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as
mulch, if you have a bagging attachment for your mower.

This would be my plan.

David


If there's an early frost and none of it works, he's out what - $7.37
for seeds?

Many of those will survive quite a bit of frost anyway

D

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
...
I have an area 5' x 45' along side my garage. I just added about 6"
of Top Soil to level. I want to plant tomatoes there next year
because gets lot of
hours of sun. Anyway my question is what to do with this area till
next spring. I was thinking to plant an annual red clover "cover
crop" Would this be good Idea? If so should I plant now or wait
till fall? I am in central Michigan zone 5.


Why not do all the normal maintenance that's typical of mid-summer
(mulching, weeding), but plant stuff that'll mature in autumn, like
broccoli, collards, chard, lettuce, etc? Use lawn clippings as
mulch, if you have a bagging attachment for your mower.

This would be my plan.

David


If there's an early frost and none of it works, he's out what - $7.37
for seeds?

Many of those will survive quite a bit of frost anyway

D


Uzzactly.