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JJJessee · February 6, 2015

I understand your struggles with poor soil to some extent -none of mine is excellent. My row garden (the 60x100) area was just clay sod(weeds) in 2012. It had been plowed once maybe twice for taters 10 years prior. I have never had a soil tested. I had a tractor till it and I used about 20 x 100 for 2 rows of raspberries. They don't require a particularly rich soil. The remaining 40x100, I bought a tiller and sowed and tilled in 3 crops of buckwheat that summer. I could have grown a veggie crop there but I thought would be more beneficial for focus on building soil value.

I understand the value of weeds, they do some invaluable things in a garden in their progression toward compost. I like to help them along in fact ;-) I would fall short of calling them beneficial companion plants. Beneficial plants, I agree 100%, they definitely are. But as companions I'm very picky. But I do tolerate some yarrow, mullien, evening primrose, clover,chickweed, heal-all. But ragweed, grasses, chuffa -not so much. My concern is that a vibrant weed crop seems to compete with a veggie crop and suppresses production to the extent that my time in the field might be better spent than squeezing a fair to poor crop from it. That could also be a POV, partly depending how you value your labor. There are more benefits that time can yield than money. But it's a balance I guess.

But I had an advantage. I did not need to see a profit nor feed myself from it. I had another plot, where I was to end up building my raised beds, I tilled (with dolomite) and planted 3 dz tomatoes. Similar to you, I just mulched them at the base. But I had tilled in the sod. They did fair. We put up about 40qt and a maybe a dz pts of ketchup, fresh use, and a little give-away.

February 6, 2015	#18
JJJessee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Abingdon, Va Posts: 184	I understand your struggles with poor soil to some extent -none of mine is excellent. My row garden (the 60x100) area was just clay sod(weeds) in 2012. It had been plowed once maybe twice for taters 10 years prior. I have never had a soil tested. I had a tractor till it and I used about 20 x 100 for 2 rows of raspberries. They don't require a particularly rich soil. The remaining 40x100, I bought a tiller and sowed and tilled in 3 crops of buckwheat that summer. I could have grown a veggie crop there but I thought would be more beneficial for focus on building soil value. I understand the value of weeds, they do some invaluable things in a garden in their progression toward compost. I like to help them along in fact ;-) I would fall short of calling them beneficial companion plants. Beneficial plants, I agree 100%, they definitely are. But as companions I'm very picky. But I do tolerate some yarrow, mullien, evening primrose, clover,chickweed, heal-all. But ragweed, grasses, chuffa -not so much. My concern is that a vibrant weed crop seems to compete with a veggie crop and suppresses production to the extent that my time in the field might be better spent than squeezing a fair to poor crop from it. That could also be a POV, partly depending how you value your labor. There are more benefits that time can yield than money. But it's a balance I guess. But I had an advantage. I did not need to see a profit nor feed myself from it. I had another plot, where I was to end up building my raised beds, I tilled (with dolomite) and planted 3 dz tomatoes. Similar to you, I just mulched them at the base. But I had tilled in the sod. They did fair. We put up about 40qt and a maybe a dz pts of ketchup, fresh use, and a little give-away.