The Pluses and Minuses of Cardboard Mulch

Here is the first flower of all the cucumber seedlings.  Its on the seedling planted directly in the ground on the north side of the driveway in the cardboard mulch area.  So cardboard mulch isn't all bad. (more on that below).

I'm really liking this driveway garden set up. It started as a temporary solution while the backyard was under construction and not plantable.  But I'm really enjoying having so many veggies on the driveway, which is right outside my side door, which is right beside the kitchen. Besides the plants, I also have the compost bins right there near the door which makes it super convenient to throw kitchen scraps in, and also to keep it turned and watered.  Everything is very compact and convenient and two steps out the door.  Who would have thought the two narrow strips of dirt between the driveway and the house on one side and the driveway and the wall which divides mine and the neighbor's property on the other side would make such a great vegetable garden?

Although sometimes I give advice on all sorts of gardening issues (ie, don't get water on the leaves, or cardboard is great for mulch) actually almost everything I am doing is experimentation and so I'm not always 100 percent right (although my super-ego totally disagrees).  This blog is a note-taking tool: a garden diary which I can use to record what I do and I can learn what I should do again next year, and what I should not.

So here are two things I learned recently. 1. As good as the cardboard mulching is to keep the weeds down I am finding it is also a perfect hiding and breeding place for earwigs once it gets soggy from watering. And slugs. So I'd say on a scale of 1 - 10 cardboard as mulch might only be a 5.

2. I have said it's not good to get water on the leaves of tomato and other plants and that it's better to water at the ground level, with a drip system or flooding. While that is generally true, actually it's ok to get the leaves wet occasionally - just not soaking wet all the time. In fact every once in a while I use the hose to spray water over all my plants and trees to wash off all the pollution and grime we have floating around over LA. And actually for the first two years of my backyard vegetable garden I used a sprinkler attached to a garden hose all the time to water the veggies. I did have lots of powdery mildew or fungus caused by so much water sitting on the leaves of the yellow summer squash, but for 90 percent of the crops there weren't negative repercussions from overhead watering.

And there are my mea culpas. On the "Here are my great ideas" side, one which is actually great is this: When you are planting your seeds take the time to write not only the type of plant on a plastic labeling stake, but also write the date planted, date to germination and date to maturity.

I abbreviate these as P, PG and PM so there is enough space to get all the info on there. It's great to see how you are doing compared to the expected rate so if you know things are going well or not. The bok choi came in right on schedule :-)