I've had quite a few people in the last week asked me for an update on the Sorghum Sudangrass that we crimped and tarped
Here in this plot behind me in the dream garden
So I figured today was a good day to give update on that take a look at that
See how it's going and talk about our progress getting ready for fall
Planting and I guess we'll go ahead and maybe check out some of these other plots in the dream garden as well
See what we got going on there as we're getting into fall
Slowly but surely. Mornings are cooling off a little bit, but it's still blazing hot here in the afternoon
So, let's see what we got going on
So if you've seen that previous video
this is where we had a nice big stand of Sorghum Sudangrass and
We took our riding mower instead of cutting it because it's pretty thick
we just lowered the deck all the way down didn't turn the blades on and just laid it over or crimped it and
Then we put the tarp on top of it to let the tarp kill all of that vegetation. So let's see what it looks like
So we can see right there that that part did a good job killing all that stuff there.
Nice and dead, nice and broken down actually got some pretty good little soil moisture down there
It's not too dried, which is good
And so now we need to come in here with some compost now
I know from experience because I've done this at one of my other
Farms I'm working on that if I come in here with a tiller even though that Sorghum Sudangrass is dead
That stuff will just wrap around the tiller blades and cause me some trouble. So
Haven't really figured out quite how I'm gonna handle this I think
I'm going to come in here with just a heavy layer of our chicken manure compost and just cover all that grass there and
Maybe re-tarp it or try to till it in with some of that compost in there
I haven't decided yet
but I can't just come in here and
Till it like it is because all that dead Sorghum Sudangrass is just going to wrap around the tiller
So we're going to come in here with some heavy heavy compost
Probably put a couple inches or so on top and then we're going to go from there and kind of see what the next
action is going to be
Just to give you guys an idea of how well the Sorghum Sudangrass will grow back
After it's been cut take a look at this right here
So this is some of the that's on the edge of that tarp when I've actually mowed this
With the lawn mower before and so even when it's mowed close this stuff will come back nice and pretty and green
So another strategy you can do and we'll see another plot in a minute. Where we're going to do that
Is you can just mow it and it will keep growing back and keep growing back and just add more biomass to the soil
Every time you mow it and this second plot here in the dream garden
We have got boqoodles of jambalaya okra
This is some that we planted with our Hoss garden seeder using the row marker
we did that several several videos ago a month or so ago and this stuff is really really
Producing. I haven't been picking it every other day
I've actually just been picking up about twice a week, but I've been getting loads and loads of okra off this stuff
Let me show you just how much okra this stuff is making
So on some of your older heirloom varieties of okra
You might just get one or two pods here up top every time you pick it
but on this hybrid
Jambalaya okra you can see we get lots and lots of pods up here
So I'll wait to these two here
Get a little longer and by that time this guy will be about those size and when we go through and pick this stuff
Right here. We'll get anywhere from four to five nice okra pods
Per plant and then you have a plot like this with ten 30-foot rows that means an entire
heap of okra
Now this plot here is the one we've had our peppers and eggplant in
Since you know the spring since we transplanted them these guys are still kicking along
We've lost a few peppers here and there and lost a couple eggplant
You know
I've had to go out of town a little bit the last
Month or so and it's just been hot and dry and it's just been hard to keep these things watered
I've even had to overhead water them a little bit just to cool the leaves off some
but we're still getting some really good production here eggplants are still producing peppers are still producing somewhat
So we'll just let this plot ride out until we get a frost come in and kill it
Still productive enough to justify leaving it there now back to the cover cropping stuff
So this plot here is full of Sunn Hemp planted this stuff super thick
I like to kind of double the recommended planting rate and get it really thick and
this stuff needs to be cut down and I'm
Working on getting it cut down. I tried to cut it down a little bit. It's a little too thick
I'm probably going to end up having to crimp it and
Try to get it down from there, but this right here is starting to flower
It's been dry around here, and I haven't been keeping the water
On this stuff and I want to show you what it looks like when it does flower
so this Sun helps nice and thick as you can see, they're really
Dense patch and if we walk right over here
got some that's flowered so it makes these nice little pretty yellow flowers
And even once the flowers make you still got a few weeks there before it goes to seed but you can just imagine
If we let this entire plot here
flower how beautiful and pretty that would be so if you have a big meadow area or a huge a big
Garden area at your house and you want to plant some of this to work on the soil, but also beautify the area
There's nice pretty yellow flowers will do the trick. I'll show you over here. We tried to mow this a little bit
But it really our lawn mower couldn't really handle it
so I think what we're going to do is do like we did with that sorghum before and we're just going to have to
Crimp this stuff lay it down put a tarp on it let the tarp kill it and then we can go from there
but we've got tons and tons of
biomass in there just look how thick
And dense that is all just doing good work for that soil there
It's gonna be some good good soil for fall planting around here. The other spot we tarped
when we did our last
tarping video
Was this spot right here in the dream garden where we had some Brown top millet planted and that millet didn't get super tall only
About knee-high so we came in and we mowed it and then we tarp the area
So let's take a look at what this looks like now that it's been tarp for about a month or so
Alright, so there's our tarp
We look here where we got the tarp pull back. All that millet is died off really nice there
Even got a little
some nut grass there. It looks just about dead
So this stuff is not near as thick Sorghum Sudangrass was so
As soon as I can get me a big load of compost
I'm just gonna come in put some compost down and till this baby in this will probably be the first plot I plant in
As far as cool weather crops go for fall. So we'll pull this tarp back put some compost on get it tilled in and
This should be ready to go pretty good soil here now, not only can we use the tarp in an established garden plot
we can also use the silage tarp to create a new garden spot where it's just
Lawn or grass or whatever you want to call it and that's what we're doing right here behind me here
You can see this real long
Skinny piece of tarp I have here
So what I did is I took the tarp I had on my sunn hemp way over there where we planted the fall corn
I drug it over here
I just folded it over several times and got this little long skinny patch here where I'm going to plant me some blackberries. So come
November or so
Be the time to plant some thornless
Blackberries in this neck of the woods and we're gonna plant us a nice little 50 foot long row of them
I have some on one of the back gardens
But they're starting to decline in production a little bit for whatever reason so we're gonna plant us a new patch right here
Come November just a nice little trellis on those guys will have lots of blackberries come spring
And then the last plot in our dream garden
I want to show you is where we had some sorghum Sudangrass planted and I just mowed this stuff down
So this stuff was about a little over waist-high gotten pretty thick
And if I would let it get any taller I wouldn't have been able to get in here with a mower. But I
Caught it just before it got too big got in here with a mower and mowed it down now
I don't think I'm gonna go ahead and I'm not gonna tarp this. I'm not going to till it in
I'm gonna put a little bit of water on it cuz it's pretty dry around here
And then I'm gonna let this stuff just grow back
And I'm just going to keep mowing it back until I get ready to use this plot
So once some of my transplants in the greenhouse get ready
I can come in here and till this up in no time and have it ready
Let me show you some of the biomass this stuff produces once it's mowed
Look in here
We just mowed this stuff here with the push mower and man we've got a lot of good grain material here
nice stuff it's gonna kind of
Do a mulch layer on that soil on top of it
And then those stems should start growing back pretty soon get a little water on them so it's a good way to just a feed our soil
Give a nice little mat on top of it there keep any new weeds from coming up and just kind of keep this spot
You know on pause until we're ready to use it for fall
And then finally the last spot I wanted to show you today is in one of my bigger
Established gardens kind of to the side of the dream garden where we've got some more sorghum sudangrass planted
but here I can show you what it looks like when it's at about the kind of ankle to calf high level and
This is a pretty big plot
My biggest plot I have this plot here is about I don't know 40 by
60 or 80 or so pretty good size plot and this plot here. I'm just gonna go crazy
with alliums this fall so
I'm gonna plant several different varieties of onions in here. I'm gonna plant leeks in here. I'm gonna plant shallots in here
I'm gonna plant elephant garlic in here. So this plot we still have till the beginning of November before we do anything with it
We've got this sorghum sudangrass growing just doing work on that soil and we're just going to keep mowing it until November
Until we're ready to till it in and plant all those alliums. I
Want you to look how dense
of a coverage you get from that Sorghum Sudangrass, even if there's a pigweed in there. It doesn't stand a chance
with this stick stuff here. Now I did put it out there pretty thick this big plot here
I put about half a five-gallon bucket full of seed out here and watered it in real good
I wanted it to be real thick and I'm gonna come in here and I'm gonna
Mow this stuff
I'm gonna upset the mower on high and I'm gonna mow it
And it will grow right back and I'm gonna mow it again and I'll just mow it as many times as I need to I don't want
It to get much taller than this in this plot because when I do go to turn over this plot
I want to be able to turn it over pretty fast
Let the stuff get real thick and take a little longer to break down which you can see. That's good good
Biomass good green material for our soil there, and it's just beautiful to grow
These cover crops do a lot of good things for your soil. They're also fun to grow
They're just pretty look out there and just see that nice expanse
of cover crop.
Alright, so, that's all I've got for you today
I hope you enjoyed the little quick tour of the dream garden to see how those tarps are doing their thing, man those tarps have really
Changed the game for us this summer and this fall
With our cover crop growing. So hope you enjoyed that
Like I said, we're still on hold here for a little bit longer with the fall planting still a little hot here
But we're going to get there. We're getting close and feel a little bit of crispness in the air
Let me know what you got going on out there. You already got fall stuff in the ground
Maybe you live a little north of us and are fortunate to have a little cooler temperatures
Now if you still got cover crops going on tell me about that too, just excited to hear what everyone's got going on
late summer into fall.
Hope you enjoyed this video. We'll see you guys next time.
Tiger Tiger, what you doing in there?
Get out of there
Hunting rats
There any rats in that cover crop
Get them out of there.