Question about clover in the vegetable garden

Toni, my daughter has clover in her yard , a type she has never seen and I will ask her the name, when we talk.
I like having clover around for the rabbits and the flying creatures.

 

I have clover in my lawn too. It is supposed to help the grass by fixing nitrogen from the air.

Maybe not so good in a veggie garden though....too much competition for nutrients, water, etc. I have well weeded the two offending beds. I hope to spread mulch on them tomorrow.

 

I forgot to ask my daughter the name of the clover.

I picked and froze 3 quart bags of beans today.

 

Finally, my daughter says, "Palestine Strawberry Clover", and you may learn more by googling.

 

Thanks GP. I have weeded out out & put down a mulch.

 

Cayuga, I used a mulch of hay bales which had been chopped with a lawn mower. Lots of weeds came through anyway. Still, the beans and kale produced quite well.
We had a wonderful rainfall yesterday afternoon. 4 rain-barrels full,
plus what fell on the gardens. Picture me saying, "Thank You!"

 

Grwoingpains, I have been using hay as a mulch too. I have had weeds, but a lot less than without the mulch. I have read that hay enriches the soil more than just plan straw. In any case, last fall I put manure on my beds in the community garden, then overlaid them all with hay. This spring, the soil was wonderful! Soft, crumbly, ready for planting without turning it over. I just pulled back the hay & planted my seeds. They year's garden has been the most productive ever! We can't keep up with the produce. I plan on doing the same thing this fall: manure, then straw as a mulch.

 

Poo is a secret weapon. No joke.

 

True Toni, but I have to use what I can get. Most of the weeds I have are Plantain and one that has tiny yellow flowers.
Cayuga, which manure do you use? Chicken? Cow?

 

For the past two years I have been using goat manure. Actually I think the weeds I have had in my beds come from that because they are the same weeds growing in the manure pile. They really aren't too bad though. Easy to pull. Although the hay has grass seeds in it, I am not seeing grass or hay sprouting in my beds. ???

I don't know what I'll use this fall to put my beds "to bed". Whatever manure I use, I'll cover it with hay again because it has been so successful this year.
What do you use Growingpains?

 

Cayuga, we try to create compost with the Borage stalks, Dill stalks, most things we have growing. We also bury our peelings, etc in the garden. We still end up buying some garden soil, Cow manure (which has been cured), Worm castings, Azomite, hope the spelling is correct. To tomatoes and a few other plants, we add crushed egg shells. As the tomatoes grow, we add Epsom salt around the base, and last of all, hope!
We put either straw or hay, chopped with the lawn mower, between the rows in hopes it will discourage weeds, failing miserably this year! A lot of chopped leaves go into the garden in the Autumn.

 

GP, I like it!! You use whatever compostable material you have to hand. I do the same in my home garden. I have a very robust compost pile that I use for my perennial gardens. It is a bit difficult to transport it to my community garden plot though. Until this summer I was collecting coffee grounds from a local cafe and adding them to the soil directly or dumping them on the compost pile.

 

Cayuga, we bury coffee grounds with our peelings.

We try anything that makes sense. So far, all is good.

 

I have a clover that looks kind of shamrocky. I just leave it. Well some of it, if I happen to be weeding the grass or other weeds then I pull it up as well. They look kind of like oxalis (shamrock) but with no bulb. And they have yellow flowers. Oxalis that grows wild in Washington State has white flowers. I'm letting them take over under my trees in front of the garage.