Thanks, Stan.
That's an admirable approach for a small garden. Our situation is quite
different. I plant in 1.5 m wide lanes, separated by 2 m wide aisles of
grass which I periodically mow with a bush hog. (That's a tractor
powered mower >1.5 m in diameter, for you city folks.) Typically our
lanes total 80 m to 100 m in length. We do not rake leaves, though our
100 ha farm is ~80 % forested and produces a copious supply of them. Our
farmstead is in the corner of a meadow and that space is frequently
swept clean by winds.
What grass clippings my wife does get inspired to gather up go on her
flower gardens and on the floor of our chicken coop. The "girls" love
greens! Periodically we let the chickens out once the garden plants are
mature so they till with their feet and eat all the bugs and
caterpillars du jour they can find. Our tomato, peppers, and sometimes
beans are set into ground cover fabric held down by mulch, however. That
and the aisles allow us to pick the entire garden by reaching in from
the grassy aisles or while standing on mulch covered fabric.
We augment our garden with various normal and exotic fruiting trees and
bushes. In a few weeks I expect 5 each of 2 species of elderberries to
arrive and those will be added to the collection of plantings.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
On 2013-04-07 08:41, Stanislav Jakuba wrote:
Jim:
How about no calculator and no mulch buying? The attached "lazy :man's"
gardening might make your wife's mulching and weeding easier and cheaper.
Ignore the "Danielle" heading in the article; that's the name of
my goddaughter for whom I wrote it.
The mulch related text at the beginning; no need to read the whole thing.
We have a late spring here this year, and it so happens that the spading
takes place in April, hopefully this afternoon.
Stan Jakuba
On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:48 PM, <cont...@metricpioneer.com
<mailto:cont...@metricpioneer.com>> wrote:
While my wife Michele and I were shopping in Winco yesterday, the
first thing I noticed at the entrance was a shelf full of flower
bulbs for spring planting. I examined a package for any measurement.
The only measure I found was approximate bulb size given in cm only.
That experience was refreshing.
David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 <tel:503-428-4917>
----- Message from vliets...@btinternet.com
<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com> ---------
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 23:25:35 +0100
From: Martin Vlietstra <vliets...@btinternet.com
<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com>>
Reply-To: vliets...@btinternet.com <mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com>
Subject: [USMA:52609] RE: The joys of metric gardening
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu
<mailto:usma@colostate.edu>>
Jim,
I think that one calculator was needed - a properly-functioning
brain!
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu <mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu>
[mailto:owner-usma@colostate.__edu
<mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu>] On Behalf
Of James Frysinger
Sent: 06 April 2013 22:46
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:52608] The joys of metric gardening
My wife has just cleared some large weeds from a hill sloping
away from our
house's north wall and she announced that she wants to smother
it in mulch.
The question immediately arose, "How many bags of mulch will it
take?"
I had her look at a bag of mulch left from last year and she
told me it
contained some number (which I've already forgotten) of cubic
feet or 85 L
of mulch. Yes, our local nursery supplier dual labels the bags!
I showed her 85 mm of yellow metal tape sticking out of my
metric tape
measure and she said that was a nice depth for the coverage she
wanted.
I told her that 1 L = 1 m² x 1 mm and so one bag would cover 1
m² to a depth
of 85 mm. We then went out and determined the area to be covered
was 7 m by
9 m or 63 m². Ergo, we needed 63 bags of mulch -- about 2 trips
worth in my
F-250. No calculators were needed.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267 <tel:931.212.0267>
(H) 931.657.3107 <tel:931.657.3107>
(F) 931.657.3108 <tel:931.657.3108>
----- End message from vliets...@btinternet.com
<mailto:vliets...@btinternet.com> -----
