Monty's Mulch -- Landscaping Supplies

VEGETABLES

It is said that there are over 63 million vegetable gardeners in this country. i'd say it's more like 80 million because nearly everyone who has a yard wants to have a go at a tomato, pepper, or cucumber plant for the simple reason that everyone loves the taste of fresh and flavorful salads..even the bugs!

Growing vegetables need not be expensive, time-consuming, or discouraging if you will simple use common sense and the few household products that I recommend.

A productive garden does not have to be a large patch of ground dug up in the middle of your yard. It can be bushel baskets filled with a blend of good, rich peat moss, leaves, light soil, and a little light gravel. Or, you can use planter, plastic garbage cans--anything that will hold soil and let excess water out.

If you have the space for a garden, it must be in a bright location, with light, flexible soil. If clay or hard-pan is your lot in garden life, remove it for the spot and use it as a raised wall and fill the hole with the above material. Also add 50 lbs gypsum, all the emulsified table scraps you can find, 50 lbs of cow manure, and 1lb. of sugar for each 140 sq. ft. of garden.

Don't plant more that you can use because you waste space int the garden as well as the refrigerator. If you're going to use containers, make every inch count and remember, there is nothing you can't grow in a container.

When youare first preparing your garden in spring, add lime as you spade. Do not use fertilizer for 2 weeks after you have used lime. When you are tilling your garden to plant for filling your planter, add 2 cups of Epsom salts per 100-150 sq. ft. of garden or 1/2 cup per bushel basket.

Every 3 weeks, feed your vegetable garden in the morning, alternating the diet using the following tonics which are applied with your 20 gal. hose-end sprayer(fill the balance of the sprayer jar with warm water).

Number 1:

1 can beer
1 cup ammonia
1 oz. liquid dish soap
3 tbsp. instant tea

Number 2:

2 oz. liquid fish fertilizer
2 oz. whiskey
1 tbsp. instant tea
1 oz. liquid dish soap

Number 3:

15-30-15 liquid fertilizer
2 oz. liquid dish soap

If you want to make bugs and disease wish they never visited your garden, for smaller gardens, aply this tonic with a mist sprayer every 2 weeks after 7 p.m.	5 drops liquid dish soap 5 drops chewing tobacco juice 2 drops antiseptic mouthwash 1/4 tsp. methoxychlor 1 qt. warm tea water
For larger garden, apply this tonic with a 20 gal. hose-end sprayer, filling the balance of the sprayer jar with warm water.	1 cup liquid dish soap 1 cup chewing tobacco juice 1 cup antiseptic mouthwash

GROUNDCOVERS

This group of plants can hide a multitude of mistakes, sore spots, and problems. Plant them thick, feed them after planting, and keep them clean.

Planting:

Like all other plants, groundcovers need stability. Apply this mixture to the planting hole as well as to the soil surface.

1 part Epsom salt
1 part gypsum
3 parts bone meal

Feeding:

Feed once a month, from early spring until July 15, but not after. Use the Rose Food Tonic to feed. Apply Epsom salts in both April and October.

Insect and Disease Control:

This is the same as for evergreens. Also, sprinkle paradichlorobenzene crystals in spring and fall.

Repellents:

This is the same as for fruit trees with the exception of the beaten egg, which is not used. For ants, snails, and slugs, see the Small Fruit (insects) section.

Winter Protection:

In early spring, early summer, and late fall, apply CloudCover as recommended.

Top Dressing:

As a rule, this group of greenery and my favorite, myrtle, are often neglected because they never make a fuss--unless one of the winter diseases sneaks in. But I have found that this top dressing, watered in with a can of beer and 4 tsp. of instant tea, makes groundcover thick enough to stop the rabbit.

10 parts worm castings
5 parts ground apple
20 parts Milorganite
1/2 bushel peat moss

MULCHING GUIDE

Putting a good layer of summer mulch around individual plants or over an entire border saves watering and weeding later on and improves growing conditions. A 2-3 inch deep layer restricts or even eliminates the light reaching the soil surface. Even if weeds do germinate in these conditions, many will not be able to grow through the layer of mulch. Summer mulches also reduce the evaporation of moisture from the soil, and most are easily penetrated by water.

Once you have mulched at planting, the best times to mulch again are in autumn (for winter protection) or spring when the soil is moist. Renew or add summer mulch when it starts to decompose; remove winter mulches before plants begin to grow in spring.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT

Cultivating the soil is certainly beneficial, but for the greatest improvement you need to incorporate plenty of organic and inorganic matter at the same time. This will improve aeration, moisture retention, and soil fertility. We recommend applying aged mushroom soil or Earthmate Compost in the autumn so the nutrients can work down
into the soil for spring when it is needed.

Organic materials include leaf mold, shredded bark mixtures, Earthmate compost, peat moss or aged mushroom soil. All of these materials will improve soil structure and hold in moisture.

Inorganic additives include coarse sand, grit and lime, which will lighten and improve drainage on heavy soils, and lime which improves the structure of clay soil soil by breaking it up. Since lime is alkaline, avoid using it near acid loving plants.

FLOWERS

You are either into flower growing, or you are not. Now that's not to say you don't add a variety of annuals or perennials to your landscape. You may, but what you end up doing is planting for looks, not for the comfort and health of your flowers. If you will just try these few tips, tricks and tonics, you might surprise yourself with a yard full of beautiful flowers.

Planting:

Both annuals and perennials can be planted from seed or seedlings. If you are using seed, let it soak over night in a solution of weak tea, air dry, and plant.

Seedlings should be planted after the last frost. Here is a great flower planting mixture. Mix all ingredients into a bucket full of dry peat moss, then put into the rows to be planted

4 cups bone meal
2 cups gypsum
2 cups Epsom salts
1 cup wood ashes
1 cup lime
1 tbsp. baking powder
4 tbsp. Diaperene baby powder

INSECT
& Disease Controls

When it comes to recommending insect and disease controls, it seems that no matter which way you go (natural, organic, or chemical), you step on someone's toes. Nevertheless, here goes:

Any liquid dish soap
Fels Naptha Soap
Yarden Shampoo™
(any soap or insect soaps are my first choice)

Make it into a juice. Nicotine is a natural insecticide, so I use it in the mixtures even when chemical sprays are used.

Leaf
Plug
Snuff (in pouches)

Antiseptic (brown)
(5 drops per qt.)

Green sweet for aggravating Nematodes
(1 oz. per gal.

bone meal
blood dry
diatomaceous earth
sharp sand
ashes

SPRAY

APPLICATION

buttermilk...................................................mites & aphids

skim milk......................................................tomato blight

sugar...............................................................nematodes

sweet pepper juice......................blights on many vine crops