Preparing Next Year's Tomato Bed. Marigold Treatment. 10.29.22

 This raised bed had the following succession.  Last year, onions.  This year, garlic, then bush beans.  I planted a row of French Marigolds at the end, which grew vigorously.

Marigolds contain a substance that is toxic to some harmful herbivorous soil creatures.  So, I thpughtbit might be useful to treat the soil with a marigold "green manure".

First, I cut off all of the beans and weeds.

I removed those.  I thought about mixing them with the soil, but it seemed like more effort than I could handle.  So the bean tops and weeds went to the compost heap.  Then I roughly chopped the marigold plants, and spread them over the soil.

Then I used the shovel to turn over the soil, mixing in the marigold choppings.

This bed was the only one not to get a treatment of biochar last winter.  Supposedly, biochar will help keep the soil healthy and  nutritious.  So I spread the remaining biochar onto the soil.

I also found a bag of chicken bone / woodstove ashes, in the garden shed.  So I spread those too.

Then I used the hand tiller to roughly mix it all together.

Now it's ready for the rain, and settling in, and the next couple of weeks of coffee grounds.  Then I'll cover with a layer of leaves, and it can rest until May.