Spin Off Idea From Back To Eden Garden

After reading it on TB I'm doing the back to Eden garden. I've gotten all of the old grass encrusted raised beds broken down, the paper is spread and chips are on top.

I have one really nice pepper plant that I want to try and save through winter. It has two tomato cages on top of it, so I wrapped chicken wire aroung the bottom cage and then took another circle of chicken wire with a 6 or 7 inch void and put it around the first.

I filled up the void between the chicken wire with wood chips. I plan to add more chips as it settles and cover the top with some row cover.

It should be interesting to see what happens. If this works I'll try next year with tomatoes.

Our winters here are usually fairly mild, but there is always a week or two of no kidding winter. I'll let you all know how this works out.

One point to make after watching that. If you are going to spread newspaper under the chips, you will need to poke a hole in the paper for the seed to reach the dirt. Newspaper is a very effective weed cover but it will also keep roots from reaching the soil. And the plant needs the soil. The chips are a very effective mulch but not a growing compound.

I used some big paper bags, Sam's lawn and garden bags. They were two ply so I seperated them to make them go further. The pepper plant was already established and in the ground and growing.

I used cardboard around the edges of the garden where I won't plant anything and I did poke holes in it with my garden fork.

I think the paper without holes will do fine. Supressing the grass is what I'm trying to do. When it comes time to plant I will break through the paper and plant in the dirt under it.

I just didn't have enough time to save that many newspapers and I wanted to get everything in place so it can begin to break down over winter.

It looks great and the lone pepper plant looks like it is growing out of the compost pile, but it's not. It is open and has air all the way down to ground level.

I was at the point that I couldn't fight the grass anymore and was ready to give up gardening altogether. I didn't even put in a winter garden because of it. I sure hope this works because for me it'a a Hail Mary attempt.

Could you post a picture of the lone pepper?

Yarnball, I don't know how to get the pictures from my phone to the computer, but I'll see if I can get someone else to do it.

It is some kind of a Cuban pepper that gives me nice sweet red peppers. It is still producing but we have some really cold weather moving in on us. Hope this works.

I've used newspaper as a weed barrier for a long time. As well as magazines, paper bags, cardboard, etc. I get bags from everyone I can and when I run short I go to the recycling center. (Ask first, some won't let you do it.) That's how I learned to make sure a hole was poked through the paper. I only tend to used cardboard in permanent plantings, like hedges.

Another trick I use is to shred the paperboard from packages and use it as mulch. I've found that it can mat down but my strawberries and grapes don't seem to care. And it will degrade over the course of a year.

Uh oh, the pepper plant isn't looking too good this morning. We had a freeze last night and it was covered up good with a tower of mulch on the sides and a row cover over the top. It looks as burned as the plants that I didn't cover.

Does anyone know if you can get large cardboard boxes from Home Depot or appliance stores (the kind refrigerators or driers might come in)? That sure would cover a large area on the grass when sheet mulching.