Friday, May 25, 2012

Tomatoes, cover crop, and mulch

Can you find my newly planted tomatoes in this picture?

My intention was not for this to be a huge mess, but I ran out of time before I left for vacation.  The green all around the tomato plants is not actually weeds but leftover cover crop I had planted last fall.  I don't  remember what they were called, but the point was that they had deep roots to help break up the soil and then when they died they would add organic matter to the soil.  I also planted a winter rye cover crop to cut down and use for mulch.  I cut most of the cover crops down a week ago and spread them all around the garden to add organic matter to the soil, but some got away.  When I get back home, I will cut the rest down and bring in the rest of the leaves to mulch the heck out of the tomatoes.  I did get to spread most of the manure before I left though.  That way the tomatoes are well fed and hopefully it has rained at least once so that they are well watered too.  I haven't used leaves as mulch really before, so I hope this won't mean that the slugs are devouring my new plants while I'm away.  We will find out really soon!

Here they are!

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