Is a planter table the solution against the couch grass?

Well, if the ground is full of couch grass, what better solution is there to avoid it, than raising the “garden”. Our solution looks like this.

My husband and son build me 2 of these planter tables to try them out this growing season.

We filled them by starting with a good layer of sheep wool to store moisture and prevent soil from falling out trough slits between the boards. Next came a good layer of woodchips followed by a good layer of composted cow manure. After sowing we finished the bed of with a layer of woodchips that came out of the chicken coop. These woodchips are already partially breaking down and bring there own nitrogen (in form of chicken poop) they need for the ongoing decomposing process.

The compost we used was very dry, which I do not mind while sowing, but after sowing a good watering was need and after covering the compost with the woodchips the water had the change to really soak into the compost. Since this growing season is a ratter rainy one I did not have to tent much to the planter tables.

Since I have 2 planter tables I wanted to do a little experiment. I had seen someone use a tarp with the black side up to trap moisture and warmth underneath to help carrots germinate. So I covered one of the planter tables with a thick black foil for a few days. After 3 days I took of the foil because a few sprouts where visible.

Shortly after taking of the foil the sprouts where gone though, but it did not take long for other things to sprout. After a few weeks some things I had sown where slightly earlier in the planter table that had the foil as in the planter table that did not had the foil. A remarkable difference was with the pumpkin, of which I had put one seed in each planter table. Both actually sprouted, but the one in the planter table with the foil was weeks earlier than the one without the foil.

Since the spring was so cold it took a while before things started to grow, but it looked promising by the time summer came.

After that some things started to turn. Every variety that belongs to the Brassicaceae started to get damages on there leafs. It is from some kind of very small bugs that also go on the cabbages and the mustard every year. The white radishes also started to look wilted, so I harvested these. Some white radishes where just big enough to prepare to eat, but others where still so small that we fed them to our hair. I found very tiny white caterpillars with a black head in the root of the white radishes. The reason they where wilted.

After cleaning out the planter tables of everything that did not look good, a lot of room came free. I’m thinking of sowing some more lettuces there, since these seem to do well in the planter table. Beside the lettuces, the runner beans are doing well also.

Some herbs and flowers came up as well. The red beets looked promising, but are not building any bulbs, but that must be the wetter, since they are not building bulbs in other parts of the garden as well (or maybe I am too inpatient). The peas looked promising, but before it was time to harvest they started to wilt and die. Maybe that was from the sudden heat, as I have heard they do not like heat. The carrots sprouted, but do not really seem to grow much yet.

Surprisingly a volunteer tomato emerged between other plants. I have no idea how that seed ended up there.

Well, I do not want to go on about the different plants and I do not want to jump into any conclusions. I am just going to try and fill in the empty spots with things that do grow in the planter tables this growing season and try all the different things again next year.

Some pictures from middle of June

Ending this post with a few pictures from middle of July