I use Corries but worry about the birds. I guess I could use plastic lids to cover mounds of it? I like Dead Line but I get carried away with the application. For our 50 Dahlias I use a thick layer of pulverized oyster shells on the soil in a wide band at the base. Rice hulls may work but I have never tried them for that but I use them to mulch my Garlic through the winter to keep the weeds down and protect the soil from the pounding rain. It got to 63 in the garden yesterday but it was pouring rain also. We have cut way back on our vegetable gardens in the last few years as our appetite wanes and my wife no longer cans not ever Tuna...
I will be glad when our appetite wanes. We are at the stage where our metabolism has slowed, but not our appetites. I don't have to tell you what that does to us; which puts the ground farther away and triggers the doctors into lecture mode. An unhappy doctor toatally ruins the day out to the doctors.
I keep oyster shells on hand to feed the chickens, and I may give that a try this year when I see evidence of slugs...we’ll see if that works along with the DE.
The weather was great here today, in the high fifties, and when the sun broke out it was tee shirt weather for digging in the new bed. I got another section started this evening, and will fill it in tomorrow.
I must have an earthworm hatch underway, because I am finding a bunch of little tiny, 1/4” - 3/8” long earthworms. There is no doubt that is what they are, and that gives me great hope for this raised bed. I seeded 2,000 red wigglers into the compost bin a couple of months ago, and they say they will double in number every 90 days or so...a healthy worm population is a sign of a healthy garden....
I many have been premature on my potatoes....I started to turn the bed over, and found one of the seed potatoes, perfectly healthy, with lots of new roots and several nice shoots on it, just below the soil. Maybe the bed is better drained than I thought it was...
It’s supposed to be dry all week with highs near 60, so let’s see what sprouts this week....