today I want to invite you to come along with me as I finally
get my summer garden boxes cleaned out stay tuned
hey friends welcome to Gardening with Creekside I am Jenny and today I have finally got some time
to clean out my garden boxes that you see right behind me Christmas is just around the corner i
mean we're talking about days away and can you see in that very far back corner I still have tomato
cages and pepper plants still in my garden boxes we are just on the hot mess express here today
and that's okay because you know what you make time or you have time to get these projects done
whenever the opportunities arise so today it is an absolutely gorgeous blue sky day it's
nice and cool and crisp have some time that I can come out here and get these projects done
this is the kind of stuff that I love to do this is the gardening that is just right up my alley
we've got a mess behind us and by the time we get done it's going to be nice and clean and
neat and tidy and ready for the winter now I have five garden boxes here these
are permanent obviously permanent garden boxes they're roughly about ten feet long and about
four feet wide and throughout the seasons I will put various vegetables and flowers in here
I do not really have any fall crops fall winter crops in here right now I do have one bed that
does have a little bit of lettuce in it I'm not doing onions and garlic this year it's just when
it came time to plant them I just I didn't have time so we're not doing them but today the main
goal is to one get the peppers and tomato plants out of here put those cages up for the winter and
then of course get all the weeds out how I put my garden boxes to bed for the winter I am going to
go ahead and this year put some Land and Sea on top of the soil and then Jackson and my mama are
currently chopping up and mulching some leaves so I will top dress each of these beds and leaves so
I think let's just go ahead and two of the boxes are already pretty much cleaned out and then the
middlebox that has that oblique right there that is my herb box some of those herbs are perennials
and some of them are annuals obviously I need to get those cleaned out so let's just get started
this is the one bed that I'm not gonna really have to do anything to because I have already weeded it
this is the one that has obviously has my winter lettuce in it and a couple gosh it probably been a
month or two ago now Jackson was able to mulch some leaves for me so this has already been
covered in leaf mulch so I don't have to worry about this one this one is completely done so yay
one down four to go and then here we have the bed right next to the lettuce and you can see
that part of it has gotten some leaf mulch on it and you will notice that we do have drip
irrigation in all of our garden boxes obviously the irrigation has been turned off for the winter
so the system is turned off the pipes will stay on top of the soil then we'll put the Land and Sea and
the leaf mulch on top of it for us I don't have to do anything other than just turn the system off
and make sure it's kind of blown out of course we are North Carolina zone 7b so we don't have
to worry about extremely hard winters so you will see that each box does have the brown
tubing in it and that is our drip system it's a great system you can see right here hopefully
that it's about every so you can see this little hole right here and it's really about
every foot so then there's another hole right there and it just drips so this is on a timer
connected to our irrigation system that way in the summertime I can just set it and forget it
Jackson and Mama brought up the first round of leaf mulch and they were a lot faster than what
I was anticipating so I did not have time to get my land and sea out so that's what I'm doing now
to try to play catch up with them I think two bags per bed will be plenty and then we'll
just spread the leaf mulch on top of it and that should be great for the rest of
the season it'll just decompose over the winter great nutrition in these beds and they will do
great so we're just going to get the Land and Sea out and then the leaves on top of it
now what is that that's tarragon
this is the bed that has absolutely been driving me crazy since probably August at least and yes
it is towards the end of December because i mean y'all really I mean the tomatoes are completely
dead brown up dried up plants I mean this is pathetic and pitiful but you know what it's okay
the the idea of having a perfect garden or the perfect anything is just an absolute lie
so if you have which I guarantee you do or everybody does has that area of your garden
that looks less than desirable it's okay don't worry about it but when you have the time take
care of it so that's what we're going to do today obviously this really probably will not be that
big of a deal to get this stuff out but it's gonna make a massive impact on how the space looks and
my emotional state when I look out here and it'll all be neat and tidy because it'll make me feel
feel so much better to have this cleaned up
all right friends so the main cleanup work is done you can see that all the beds have been
weeded they have received Land and Sea compost and a nice really thick layer of leaf mulch that
Jackson and my mama just had the most fun with the lawnmower chop it up into little bits we use this
leaf litter leaf mulch because when you break it down it just provides one it helps prevent
weeds from coming up in your garden bed which is always a great thing it just helps retain moisture
it decomposes and is a great natural compost for your garden bed under normal
circumstances your leaves will decompose in about six months well six months is pushing it
for us here so what I'm going to add is some of the Espoma blood meal and that really helps to
rapidly increase the decomposition of these brown leaves just because they're already chopped up
we're going to help add a little bit of extra nitrogen blood meal is basically all nitrogen
so that's what helps break down these leaves and provides just great compost
for these garden boxes which is always a great thing when you're trying to grow
plants so all I'm going to do is I've got my handy dandy PW little bucket and it's just a
really fine you're just going to sprinkle on there doesn't take a whole lot and I am wearing gloves
because of course this is Espoma products and you know they always have such a great
smell to them so I'm just going to go through and sprinkle some blood meal on all of these boxes
it's amazing what just a couple of hours of good old-fashioned work will do for
your garden so I encourage you if you get a nice sunny warm warmish day this winter get outside
get one of those little projects that's been nagging you get it done get it checked off
you will feel better from being outside and your garden will feel better from a little tlc these
garden boxes they are ready they are finished for the season now if you have the um the leaf
mulch and you put the blood meal down you will need to make sure that it gets well watered in
that just helps the process get going we are going to actually get a lot of rain
tonight and into tomorrow therefore I'm not going to worry about watering this
we'll just let the good Lord do that for us remember our North Carolina winters are
traditionally pretty wet so that is really helpful in the decomposition of these leaves
the next thing that will happen with these garden boxes is i will just wait until probably end of
February beginning of march and I can go ahead and like sew my arugula and my carrots and those
kinds of things I just do a direct seed on those they should have a nice very happy home to go into
and perform fantastic the next chore in this area is to work in the hydrangea bed that is directly
above us get those trim back get the lavender trimmed back a little bit need a little TLC
some fresh mulch and just get this whole area ready for winter once and for all
as always thank you so much for Gardening with Creekside we'll see in the next video bye friends